


Life After Freedom

by IndigoSnake



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Analysis, Anger, Angst, Asexuality, Bisexual Markus (Detroit: Become Human), Carl Manfred Death, Cemetery, Comfort, Depression, Detective Connor (Detroit: Become Human), Deviancy (Detroit: Become Human), Deviant Connor (Detroit: Become Human), Drugs, Evidence, F/M, Forgiveness, Freedom, Hurt, Liberation, M/M, Markus (Detroit: Become Human)-centric, Media perception, More characters to be added, Multi, Philosophy, Polyamory, RA9 - Freeform, Red Ice (Detroit: Become Human), Religion, Revolutionary Markus (Detroit: Become Human), Suicidal Thoughts, UNFAIR, Violent Markus (Detroit: Become Human), agenda, suicidal, supportive humans
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-13
Updated: 2019-11-18
Packaged: 2020-06-27 12:34:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 79,393
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19790992
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IndigoSnake/pseuds/IndigoSnake
Summary: Taking place after the game, we follow the android liberation movement and how it changes everyone's lives--focused mostly on Markus and his evolving relationships with those around him.





	1. Leo

**Author's Note:**

  * For [imbadatlove](https://archiveofourown.org/users/imbadatlove/gifts).



> First chapter in Leo Manfred's POV

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Leo struggles with his newfound solitude.

I saw him one day when I had finally dragged myself out of bed to visit my father’s grave. It had been a day like any other—utterly unproductive and full of meaninglessness, basking in the cushiness of my life—until I crossed paths with him again. I stood there frozen as Markus’ eyes passed over me. I realized that I hadn’t known what to expect, if I’d ever see him again after the last chance meeting. Sure, I’d heard on the news that he was part of some sort of android terrorist campaign, but that was so far away from me, almost fictional. Yet for the first time in a while, reality was staring me in the face. I immediately wanted to flee back to the safety of my cottage, away from all the noise and conflict. After wrestling with the guilt of my father’s death for some time, I couldn’t stand to even be around my normal, drug-addled friends. It would have been so easy to do so. No one was there to stop me. No one could tell me that I shouldn’t be pissing away my life. No one cared. One day, I simply stopped receiving their calls. I stopped receiving all calls and I found more solace being alone with my thoughts. I wanted to finally _think_ about things without everything being so muddled. I wanted some clarity—a far cry from the haze I’d been in for years. Too stupid to grasp anything past my own needs.

No words passed between us, but after that moment slipped away, I knew I wanted to apologize. I had to. He was already turning away and I felt as if he would be gone forever, if I didn’t say something quick.

“Markus, I’m—

I was interrupted when he put up a quieting hand and then shook his head no slowly. It was clear that he didn’t want to hear anything from me. I suppose that was understandable, but it was no less frustrating. I didn’t dare push the issue, however. Thinking back, I’d heard some unsettling reports on the news involving him. He was capable of killing humans in cold blood. On the other hand, he’d also taken over an entire newscasting building without resulting in any casualties. I wondered which Markus was standing before me now.

Markus wore a mask of despondency, but his expression soon became stony as his light eyes flickered away from me. He continued on his way and I made no more comment, but I found myself gazing after him for some time. In fact, my eyes remained on him until I could no longer make him out in the distance. I wondered where he was headed. I wondered what had prompted him to visit my father’s grave that day.

The fact that I couldn’t finish my sentence bothered me and I knew it would bother me until I actually apologized to him. Not that I thought it would be enough to mend all that had happened, but it would certainly make _me_ feel a lot better if Markus understood even if he was an android. There had always been so much bright intelligence behind Markus’ eyes. I’d be a fool to think he wouldn’t be able to grasp the concept of accepting one’s apology.

I would often catch Markus reading my father’s philosophical books and it always gave me an eerie feeling. How much of that did he comprehend? Why was my father always encouraging such odd behavior? Sometimes I’d overhear him talking with my father and I'd hardly be able to understand anything they were discussing. I remember a time when my mind was quite clouded being utterly fascinated as I stood just behind a corner listening to them go on and on about the finer points of Aristotle’s Nicomachaen Ethics. It wasn’t that it was difficult to understand—though it was to a certain degree—but that they were conversing about things I’d never thought about to any great lengths. In hindsight, it would have been nice to see if they reached any conclusions, but my addiction had had a stronger hold on me and money had run dry once again.

If someone asked me if that same android was capable of doing the things I was hearing about, I’d give them a wholehearted yes and I’d blame my father for planting such fantastical thoughts into his mind. But those thoughts had already been planted and they had flourished—it was too late to change things as they were now. These days, I was being bombarded on the internet with content about whether androids even knew what “freedom” meant and what it entailed. Everyone seemed to have an opinion, even those who had no idea what they were talking about. I wasn’t much better, but I couldn’t see what the big deal was. I didn’t understand why there were even debates being had. Maybe I’m a bit too simplistic. If my toaster demonstrated to me the same sort of intelligence as Markus and asked that it not be so dependent on me and to be treated equally, I’d simply acquiesce. Clearly, if anything could ask those things, then it was time to give it.

No one wanted to admit that perhaps we’d made a mistake in making them so human and so capable. I find it difficult to believe that the ones who created them really had no idea. Everyone was silent on that kind of thinking. I’m not one to believe in conspiracies, but this doesn’t seem like something that happened accidentally. All those smart people at CyberLife apparently didn’t do enough mock testing to realize that their androids were not simply machines anymore? They apparently didn’t realize that after a certain point as far as intellect and understanding goes, they were no different from us? I seriously doubt it.

I haven’t spent a lot of time with androids personally. I’d seen a few in passing. None of them were quite like Markus though, but then I doubt owners were constantly prodding their androids to push the boundaries of their supposed understanding of the world. It wasn’t completely unheard of though. Out in the ether, there were many people out there who already believed that androids were no different from us—we called them crazy and off the wall—but still, it was out there. There were many stories of people who had formed relationships with androids. Every once in awhile there would be some news report about someone claiming to have fallen in love with an android. As places like Eden Club became more prominent, it hadn’t been so much of a stretch, but we all assumed that these people weren’t normal. These were just sad, lonely people that wanted their five minutes of fame.

Or maybe they had simply been smarter than all of us.

I’m sure that small percentage of people out there—those who already believed that their androids were more than what they seemed—felt quite validated right now. Perhaps they hadn’t imagined an entire movement, but it was just as well. One of my friends, Derrick, was known for his stance on androids and how it should be illegal and punishable by law to mistreat them to the point that he’d changed quite a few minds on the issue in my circle of friends. Don’t get him started on androids because he could talk everyone’s ears off about his grievances of their station in life. It was all fun and games. He also died a few weeks ago from overdosing, but that was beside the point. He’d been right.

Derrick’s grave wasn’t out here with the likes of my father. He couldn’t keep a job to save his life and his family simply wasn’t part of his life. I got the impression that he simply didn’t have very much family to begin with and that they’d likely been poor. The local authorities took care of his affairs. One day he was there, the next he was gone. Even that hadn’t stopped my ongoing addiction, but sometimes, every once in a while, I find myself mourning his death knowing that no one else likely was.

I stood where Markus must have just been. I looked to the ground to find his footprints trailing away, but then I returned my sights to the gray stone, my father’s final resting place. Honestly, I don’t know why I was here today. Me being here doesn’t change anything. In fact, I felt no different now than I had yesterday. I still felt empty. I still felt like I wanted to be alone. I still felt incredibly useless. Though I’d always felt these things even before his death, it had never been at such a staggering degree and I no longer had the drugs to dull the pain. I still really had no way to cope with anything. I certainly couldn’t help the hot tears from coming.

I could lapse back any day now. No one would care. Maybe death was a thing to look forward to. It seemed peaceful. What would my father say if he saw me now? Actually, I couldn’t really imagine it. I didn’t know him that well. My relationship with him seemed to always be centered around red ice. He seemed to always want what was best for me. Maybe if he could see me now, he might actually smile at me and we could sit down and have a real conversation about—I don’t know what about, but something not involving drugs. We could finally get to know each other. It was too late for those silly kinds of thoughts, far too late. I’d pissed away any chance of that happening. Everything was probably my fault, it was pretty safe to say.

I stayed for a while longer and trudged back to my car only to sit there longer in silence as I continued to cry. It felt nice to do so without any interruption. I was just sad and I didn’t feel like trying to reason out why. It was simply how I felt. I doubt I could ever feel anything else besides.

//

One day, I found the heterochromatic android at my father’s grave again and I felt my heart skip a beat and a sliver of fear roll down my back. There was no reason to believe that he’d _never_ show up again, but it was still a surprise. I visited sporadically just to say that I did something of some meaning that day. I never felt accomplished afterwards. Some small part of me thought of it as a kind of punishment to keep reminding myself of what my own actions had led to. Even more sickening was how much I had benefited from his death. I knew I was utterly trash when I, in fact, enjoyed not having to work for the kind of wealth I had attained so instantaneously. I could afford to be just as aimless as ever. I could afford to ponder on things I hadn’t before. I could afford to build my own world which included only myself. I was free to do those things.

Relations with androids continued to be shaky despite the peaceful protest that Markus had led—an event that had been plastered on the news for months and was still mentioned to this day. His name was on everyone’s lips and his cause seemed to permeate every facet of the world. I watched him from a distance for a time, trying to imagine how chaotic his life must be. How many times had I seen Markus on television doing interviews after interviews, most of them turning into a heated debate? How many times had the news covered the multitude of meetings that were being had with government officials? How many more marches and demonstrations had occurred? How many times had he been blamed for anything bad that happened because of it? Yet he still had time for this. I wondered if I shouldn’t just turn back around and leave him in peace, but there was something I still wanted to do. I didn’t think I’d have the chance again. This might be the last one.

I moved to his position slowly so as not to startle him, but I also did not disguise my footsteps—I wanted him to know that someone else was there. He didn’t even so much as glance my way and I felt a little awkward when I wound up standing beside him in silence. The hairs stood on the back of my neck as the silence grew longer and colder. Maybe I needed to say something first.

“Markus, I’m sorry for what happened—I mean back then when…” My words failed me when he finally acknowledged my presence. He seemed weary and his knitted brow indicated that I was doing little more than annoying him. His eyes lingered on me a bit longer and his expression seemed to lighten a bit.

“You seem different from before,” Markus finally said to me.

“Really? I mean, yeah, I’m not…doing the same things I was before.”

“I see,” he replied heavily. He studied me a bit longer. “In some ways, you resemble him, your father.”

“First I’ve ever heard of that, everyone says I look just like my mom and I couldn’t paint anything to save my life.”

“Even so,” he replied unperturbed.

“Oh, well…” I began uncertainly, but I didn’t have anything of substance to say and his eyes had returned to the massive stone before them. When he started to move away likely to return to his restless life, I felt I needed to say something more since he seemed somewhat amicable. “Wait, I…”

Markus paused with his back turned towards me.

“I was just thinking—” I was running on autopilot just letting the words flow from me. I hadn’t spoken to anyone in quite some time. “—maybe, if you need any help…I could help you.”

“With what exactly?” he questioned smoothly.

“You know, with the stuff you’ve been doing lately.” As soon as I said that, I felt silly saying it. I wasn’t being very specific, but I didn’t care about the specifics. Helping him and his cause seemed to be a fitting thing to do considering all that had transpired.

I imagined he was considering my words when he didn’t reply immediately. He answered a few moments later. “I don’t think that would be a good idea.”

“What? Why not? Seems like you could use all the help you can get.”

Markus turned back to me now. “Beggars can’t be choosers, but it sounds as if you haven’t given any of this serious thought. I’d rather not add more flaky humans to my list of concerns.”

“Flaky?” I said with some surprise not expecting such language from an android. Then again, perhaps it was an apt description.

Markus seemed to be waiting for my retort as he watched me with a raised eyebrow, but I didn’t have the courage to say anything further. I thought I noticed a bit of a grin on his face, but I couldn’t be sure. With this he turned once again to be on his way, but I still felt like I needed to say something more. Maybe I just wanted him to say something that might give me some closure. I took a few steps towards his retreating form.

“Why do you keep coming here?” I asked in a raised voice so that he might hear.

He didn’t respond and I pursued him further until he stopped in his tracks.

“What do you want from me, Leo?” he asked exasperatedly.

He’d never used my name before and it felt strange that he addressed me so directly. “I just…I don’t know…” I really had no idea. It was difficult to decipher my own thoughts. “I mean, do you forgive me?”

“None of that matters now. I suggest you find solace elsewhere.”

My eyes were beginning to sting again. I really did not want to start tearing up in his presence, but crying was never a thing that I could control. Besides, he was turned from me, he wouldn’t see anything. Surprisingly, he spoke further.

“All that’s left is his legacy. How you choose to honor it, is up to you and no one else.”

I was speechless in his wake as his form began to retreat further. This time I did not stop him. I was far too consumed with my own thoughts. I don’t know how long I stood there motionlessly but it still wasn’t long enough to comfortably quell all my emerging concerns. Once again, I wish I’d known my father better. Markus certainly didn’t have that problem.

At night, I wrestled with my thoughts and my guilt. How could I honor his memory? What was I even doing to those ends? What could I be doing? Did I _want_ to do anything? What new levels of worthlessness would I stoop to if I ignored any notion of doing something further? It wasn’t required of me. I could continue on as I was and no one would care.

And I did nothing about my dilemma, deciding that it would be better to ignore those questions which had scary answers. What would helping Markus entail anyway? Did I really want to invite such adversity and ruckus into my life when it was so peaceful now? I could close my door and not have to deal with androids or any of their problems.

I wondered how it might be like to be an android. One had no choice but to face the realities of the world. One couldn’t simply _decide_ one day to include themselves in the ongoing fight. It sounded depressing. It sounded utterly stressful. I wouldn’t be able to carry on that way. Maybe that was why I found Markus at the cemetery—he also couldn’t carry on that way indefinitely.

I was glad he’d denied my request to help. I was just saying things because it sounded like it was proper to say. It was as if, well, I’m ashamed to admit this, but it was as if I had been trying to have him validate me. I wanted him to tell me that I was fine, that I was doing the right thing and that I didn’t need to change anything. He didn’t give me that. I don’t know why I thought he would. Why would the word of an android even matter that much to me? I knew that Markus wasn’t just any android though. I knew that my father trusted him, even more, my father loved him. Since I trusted my father’s judgement, then that was enough reason to follow in suit. Just from the limited conversation I’d had with him—I could understand why my father felt that way about him.

Markus seemed quite canny and observant, someone who chose his words carefully and was not taken with rash decisions. Simply being in his presence for a short time allowed me to feel his steadiness. I felt small beside him and I could not put my finger on why. Aside from my father’s endorsement of him and the brief moments I’d spent with him in the past, I knew very little about him. I wondered if I should change that. I wondered if that was possible or if it was even worth my time.

As the day came to a close once again, that notion became yet another thought that would go unresolved. Though I would pose myself many questions, I never pursued the answers. I generally just went with the flow whether I agreed with it or not.

//

I found myself seeking out more and more information about androids and how the movement was proceeding. The push for reform was quite fascinating to watch from a far. It wasn’t just Markus who was part of it, but many, many other capable androids who were just as articulate and passionate. Of course, Markus was always at the center of attention, but there were plenty of examples of other prominent androids who were furthering their agenda.

I was voraciously absorbing this information as if it would serve me in some way, as if I would do something. Instead, I was simply curious and that curiosity had not been sated. How would androids live comfortably among humans if they could not age? How could we incorporate them into already established laws? Where would they live? Where would they work? How would they thrive? Who controlled the means of their reproduction? Should they be allowed to reproduce, if they could not die? Could the economy sustain such a massive and instant increase in population?

There were many answers given to these questions and even the androids weren’t in agreement on everything. It would be a struggle to fully accept androids as they were and only time would tell what these purely mechanical beings could have on society.

I decided one day that I would take time out of my life to procure a present for Markus. I did so because I had nothing better to do and because I could not talk myself out of it once my mind latched onto that idea. I’d never done a thing like that before, but there was some part of me that wanted to make amends with him. I had apologized to him, but I wasn’t sure if he’d forgiven me or even received it in the first place. Perhaps enough time had passed that now I could build some sort of rapport with him. I hoped that he would allow for that. It would be nice, if anything else.

For all intents and purposes, Markus was my brother. I’d never called him that, we’d never acted that way with each other, but perhaps it didn’t have to be that way forever. It would be a shame if that was the case.

Maybe it was my loneliness spurring me on. The very thought that this was actually a ridiculous idea was not something I really considered until I visited the grave again with present in hand. I don’t know why I thought he would be there today. In fact, I had been wrong in my assumption. In fact, I had no idea if Markus had any plans of coming here in the near future. Disregarding the monkey wrench in my scheme, I simply continued to visit at the times I’d seen him the last couple instances.

It took about a week for me to find him again. I didn’t want to go and seek him out. I didn’t know him that well and it would be a little awkward considering that he was likely living with other androids. Markus seemed forever surrounded by those of his kind. Rarely did I see a human unless it was an occasion that required that he communicated with one. I wondered how intentional that was.

He was there before me as was always the case. This time he kneeled before the mammoth stone with both knees planted on the ground. I heard his voice, but I could not make out the words. He was apparently speaking softly to the stone. I wondered if he always did that when he came and that I always happened to come near the tail end. Of course, his voice ceased when he heard me nearby. I waited for him to look and acknowledge me, but he seemed to ignore me.

We weren’t off to a good start. I felt like I had interrupted something quite intimate. It was too late anyhow so I ambled over to him and stood beside him only a few inches away. I should have said something, but for some reason, I was waiting for him to do it first. He gave me nothing to work off of. In fact, his eyes had closed and he looked away—perhaps he was annoyed.

I cleared my throat. “Hey, I got you something,” I said in a voice that was far more cheerless than I had anticipated.

“Why is it that I must always run into you when I come here?” he asked with a sigh.

“Just a coincidence, I guess,” I said with a shrug. There was no way I was going to admit that in the past week I was staking the place for his arrival.

“I don’t mean to be rude, but could you leave me in peace? I won’t be much longer. Then you can have this space all to yourself.”

“Um…well…” I hadn’t expected such a direct request to leave.

He seemed frustrated with my indecision. For a moment, I saw one of his hands which was placed on his lap begin to ball into what could only be a fist, but he didn’t let it get that far before he was climbing smoothly back to his feet all in the same breath.

“Hey, wait, I didn’t mean to upset you. Please don’t go, I just wanted to talk.”

“And I do not,” he said back simply.

I could hear no malice behind his tone surprisingly enough. His expression was just as difficult as ever to decipher. His eyes never once travelled to the medium-sized, flat box wrapped in Christmas wrapping paper.

“I know things probably aren’t that great between us, but I thought it’d be a good idea to change that.”

It was subtle and almost indiscernible, but his eyebrows slid closer together as he listened to me. “An admirable endeavor, but I have no intention of humoring you.”

“Why not?”

“Why would I? You are of no interest to me. I think it would be best if we simply went our separate ways.”

Those words were so cutting to me at the moment that I started fighting back tears. My eyes blinked quite a lot to stop any of that nonsense. Why was I so sensitive these days? Even the smallest of bad news could send me into a fit of pathetic tears. But I couldn’t do that in front of Markus’ confident form.

“What do you mean, I—

He’d turned from me already intending to leave me in midsentence.

“Wait—

I was unprepared when he twirled on his heel and I found myself face to face with pure and utter disgust screaming from his countenance.

“For some reason, every time I see your face, I think of how nice it would be to finally sink a nice fist into your face over and over again.” I was stiffened with fear. He took a step towards me. “But for Dad’s sake, I always convince myself not to. I don’t want to stoop to that level again.”

 _Again?_ Still, I couldn’t picture Markus ever doing anything to hurt me. Despite what I’d seen in the news, I’d known of him before all that. I’d pushed him around plenty of times and he never reacted to any of it. He was different now, but it was difficult to shake my past image of him. So, in the face of what could only be anger, I propped up my gift so that it might catch his attention.

For once, his eyes were distracted, but after a brief moment, they were once again bearing holes into me. “Keys?” he questioned with a slight tilt of his head.

It took me a moment to realize that he had analyzed the contents of the box in my hand. “Oh, yeah, it’s keys.”

“To where,” Markus questioned plainly.

“Well,” I began with the beginnings of a grin, “it wouldn’t be a surprise if I told you. Here,” I said passing it over to him.

Markus stood in indecision. I wondered what sort of calculations his mind was making in that moment. Eventually, he did receive the box into his hands, but he was quite reluctant.

“It’s not anything bad,” I said encouragingly, “I wouldn’t do something like that.”

“I don’t know you well enough to believe such a claim. However, you’ve piqued my curiosity.”

“Hey, before you go, I just wanted to let you know again—I’m sorry.”

“I know,” Markus said simply.

His tone suggested nothing and I was left standing there wondering if that meant that he’d forgiven me or not. I knew that he probably hadn’t, but it was a difficult pill to swallow. I don’t know why I was so naïve in thinking that Markus would just accept it to make me feel better about everything. Now I was certain that he probably would never do such a thing. I think he did so purposefully and not out of ignorance to the concept. He was still upset with me. To be completely honest, it was warranted. I was still upset with me. I still couldn’t forgive myself.

Whenever I thought back to that time, I’m amazed at how I acted. I’d been so selfish, so inconsiderate of anyone other than myself. It had simply been about money. Even when my father laid sprawled on the ground, my only thoughts were that of self-preservation. My initial reaction to my father’s death had been so cold and distant as Markus knelt sobbing beside him. How could I be so inhuman? At that point, my father meant very little to me. We’d barely had a relationship to begin with. It had started out rocky and remained that way. I’d done nothing to repair that. I assumed that he hated me. In hindsight, I realized that I was constantly pushing him away. My father wasn’t perfect by any means. I’d only met him later on in life—it wasn’t as if he’d raised me. I have to admit, however, that his financial support helped my mom immensely. She’d always said so. I knew many fathers who failed even in this and, in fact, actively ran away from their responsibilities. Still, that’s no substitute to the fact that he never showed any interest in me until much later. I blamed him for that and I never forgave him.

Looking at my unwillingness to forgive my father, it became even more ridiculous that an android should somehow have more of a capacity for that. In Markus’ shoes, what did I seem like to him? I was nothing to him. Why should he care at all? I don’t know if I would, if the roles were switched. Yet I wanted it to be so. I knew I was grasping for straws. Despite that, I continued to do so. Even when I logically thought about it, there was still this strong desire to get him to do something quite improbable that would mostly benefit my own happiness.

I looked back at the grave, more sorry that I really had nothing to say rather than the fact that he was actually dead. It was difficult even to conjure up _good_ memories of him. We were forever arguing. We were forever at odds. That made this even worse. It made me feel even guiltier. I left when I could no longer stand drowning in that same guilt. I always felt much better when I left the cemetery.

I wondered if Markus would like my gift.

//

Months passed. My life remained at a standstill. I could no longer muster up the motivation to put myself through more unpleasant trips to my father’s grave. I’d done so before out of a need for penance. Now I was too weak to continue that. I felt even more worthless because of it. At the end of the day, though I didn’t want to admit it out loud, I really didn’t care. Maybe there was seriously something wrong with me. I _should_ care, but I didn’t.

I continued to absorb the news which was now always quite fascinating to watch as androids relentlessly scrambled for their rights and things they thought they were entitled to. Equally as fascinating were the stubborn humans who stood in their way with reasoning that was little more than selfish and bigoted dressed up in a veneer of legitimacy. I sighed at this. We, as a species, were showing our true colors again and we seemed pathetic before the intellect of androids.

Though I didn’t want to admit it, I was waiting for Markus to contact me, like an idiot really. He wasn’t obligated to, but I’d given him my number in the “Sorry” card along with my address. I always had my phone nearby these days and I kept fidgeting with it.

As if Markus somehow sensed that I was at my most desperate today as I stared absently at the clear screen of the powered off television, my phone began to vibrate. It scared the shit out of me and my hands were shaking as I read off the local unknown number and immediately put it to my ear.

“Markus?” I asked hopefully.

“Yes,” he said with some surprise in his tone. “How did you know?”

“Just a wild guess,” I answered with a wave of my hand. I knew it was really because no one else would call me, but I didn’t want to sound that pathetic.

“I thought it would be good form to give my thanks for your gift. Admittedly, I took my time before going out to the specified location and I’ve been quite busy since then. I wish I’d gone sooner. I haven’t so much as touched a piano in over a year now.”

“I’m glad you liked it.”

“It’s the same one from the mansion, isn’t it?”

“Yeah.” I didn’t want to inform him that I had to painstakingly track it down again since I no longer had the piano in my possession.

“I always wondered what you did with his things. I imagined you simply threw everything away that wasn’t of immediate use.”

“Well, I sold most of it and donated the rest.”

“I see—

“Maybe, I should have included you in all of that come to think of it—

“Water under the bridge,” Markus replied.

“Huh?”

“It’s no use worrying over it now. It’s done. Whenever I have some time to myself, I go back to the storage unit rather than the cemetery and it is far less depressing.”

“Yeah, I haven’t gone back there either. Turns out it’s quite a downer going to a place full of dead people.” I wondered immediately if that sounded insensitive and thought frantically for a way to remedy my careless word choice.

“You’re right. Walking into a cemetery always puts me into a certain mood. Sometimes I read off other names from the numerous stones. Sometimes I even investigate who those people were out of curiosity. For those with descendants who are no longer living, sometimes I come back and leave a flower. Sorry, I know that sounds silly.”

“No, no it’s—well, it’s not something people usually do, but it’s a nice gesture.”

“In other words, it serves little to no purpose. It just felt like the right thing to do at the time, almost like an obligation. When I learn someone’s life story, I always feel sad that it’s over especially the ones where it seems like they didn’t quite accomplish what they set out to do and those who passed far too young. I wonder what they could have accomplished had they managed to avoid the thing which ended their life. Sitting at this piano, however, is far less trying than focusing on those things.”

I was sure as I heard him speak that I’d never known anyone as empathetic as this android, this person. Could it all be numbers and programs? It was also a good sign for me. The chances of him forgiving me seemed far less improbable though I chided myself for thinking this way. “So, you still have the piano at the unit? Wouldn’t it be easier if you just brought it to your place?”

“I don’t have the space for it at the moment. Or, let me clarify, I don’t have the _personal_ space for it. I could certainly bring it back to New Jericho, but it would be in view of others. I know it’s selfish, but I want to be the only one who can access this piano, if I can help it.”

“I totally understand. It’s special to you.”

“But if you want me to move it from your property, simply say the word.”

“No, it’s fine. Really, it is.”

“Thank you.”

“Please, don’t thank me, you, of all people.”

“I was rude to you last time we met. I was far too emotional. You caught me at a bad time. I’m not usually like that.”

“You had every right to be.”

Markus chuckled at this. “Technically, I do not. That’s still being worked out. Actually, I’m really just back to the drawing board on all of that.”

“So I’ve heard. It’s really stupid. It doesn’t make any sense.”

“It makes perfect sense to me. I knew it was going to be an uphill battle. I need to come at things a little differently.” He paused for a moment as if in thought. “Just one more thing to bring up at the meeting later on.”

“I would ask if you’re doing alright, but…”

“I’m doing as fine as I can be at the moment.” I began to hear the sound of a piano being played softly. “I’ve gotten so used to things being this way, always running towards a goal that’s constantly being pushed back as I jump over more and more obstacles. Yet it’s so dissonant from the world I used to know before. I wouldn’t change any of it.”

I couldn’t think of anything to say back as I listened to the piano. I couldn’t determine what song he was playing, but it sounded aimless, like one was traveling without a destination in mind. There seemed to be no real structure to the song aside from a melody he would return to every once in a while.

“Markus, are you sure you don’t want me to help you?”

It took me a moment to realize that he’d been playing a bit louder, but I noticed as it softened once again before he responded. “I’d be a fool to refuse your help. You being in a far better financial position could certainly be of help to all of us. You don’t realize how important money is until you don’t have it anymore. We’ve had to depend on the kind donations of supportive humans so far though those funds are always dwindling. I’m grateful for the news coverage even if it is negative. Light is being shed on the issues.”

“Just say the word and I’ll help you pay for whatever.”

“I never imagined you would say such a thing to me. You sound like them, like all those androids who come to me asking if they could help in some way. Please don’t follow me so blindly. I don’t have all the answers and I have already failed many times over. It is only with the support of others that I’ve made it this far.”

“It’s not like that. I just know you’d know better what to do than anyone else. I’m not wrong, am I?”

“I’ll keep in touch, Leo. I have to discuss things over with the others. Ultimately, finding safe places for newly independent androids is at the top of my list as we wait for Congress to get their act together. And perhaps—well, maybe I’m thinking too far ahead, but perhaps the fact that you’re human and somewhat prominent could be used in securing government funding.”

“That already sounds like a decent plan.”

The call ended soon after as I felt he didn’t want to speak for too much longer. I was reluctant to do it as I became mesmerized by the strange, listless music he was playing. I should have asked him what it was. It accurately expressed what I was feeling these days.

This was the longest I’d spoken to anyone in some time and I felt somewhat revitalized knowing that Markus would definitely call again. He could use me whatever way he saw fit. It was probably true that such a sentiment was basically following someone blindly, but I had no reason to distrust him. Even if he did make mistakes, they would be honest ones and he would try to correct them the best he could. Besides, it was for a cause that I felt was just.

But he still hadn’t forgiven me. I wished that he would.

//

Inviting Markus and all of his issues into my life was probably one of the best ideas I’ve had in a while. There was much to do and he did not waste time putting me to work. It wasn’t anything I couldn’t handle, but I found myself becoming involved with the community once again. My isolated cottage wasn’t nearly as quiet, but I enjoyed the change of pace.

In the first place, Markus introduced me to his inner circle, at least the ones who were local. I remember being unnecessarily nervous when he insisted on doing such a thing. I met Simon, Josh, North, and a few others. From there, I was shown around New Jericho at which time I lost track of Markus and was left with the others. Then, at some point, as even the ones I was with were pulled in a thousand and one directions, I found myself wandering the sprawling two floor building on my own.

I’d felt intimidated, but I realized once I got over my initial fears that it wasn’t so hard striking up a conversation with androids I’d never met before. Most were quite friendly and open. I began to feel a little ridiculous with all the apprehension from before. I’d been roped into quite a few card games as I was then privy to their stories and how they ended up here and their plans for the future. It was all quite fascinating.

Soon after that, I was hosting fundraisers on a regular basis. Simon came with others who I recognized was his usual group of friends outside of Markus and days were spent redecorating the place. I really had no sense of style as far as home décor went. Slowly, my place was changed from a bachelor’s pad to a warm and welcoming model home. I quite liked it. After I was asked the first dozen times if it was okay to do this or that, I eventually just gave them carte blanche.

They also held meetings here as well. It was a private, secluded area in the nice part of Detroit. Clearly, people felt a bit safer here. Then someone had the bright idea of starting a podcast that would, of course, primarily focus on all things androids. So one of the spare rooms in the back was converted into a recording studio. While I hadn’t the slightest clue how to set anything up, it was fascinating to see it happening right before me. I was always curious to hear what they would be talking about and I found myself sitting in on each recording session even if I didn’t have anything to add. Though I was asked on a few occasions for my input, I declined.

These recording sessions became more routine and Markus would make it a point to come in at least once every two weeks which was a nice touch. I couldn’t help but think that perhaps he was spreading himself too thin. He seemed to be everywhere. He always had somewhere else to go every time he managed to visit.

I didn’t see much of Markus, but I certainly began to see a few regulars come over to my place. I enjoyed their company. I woke up every morning with a purpose. There was always one android or another who would volunteer to make breakfast and things would start from there.

At least two or three times out the week, the schedule would be quite lax, and the cottage served as just a place to hang out. All those important people who were involved with coordinating the fundraisers and maintaining the recording studio would often wound up spending time here to unwind. I began to know this particular group quite well. It was like being part of a family. As I grew more comfortable around them, I felt that I could be myself. No one seemed to mind.

There was a particular woman who had caught my attention, Cynthia. She was blonde and always preferred to wear her shoulder length hair in a tidy ponytail. Almost every day I would see her and I found it remarkably easy to speak to her. It was effortless really. I can hardly recall how our dialogue would even start, but it tended to last for some time. I tried to learn more about her, but she seemed more determined to learn about me. I wish I had a fitting story to tell, something inspirational, but all I have to share is my mediocre existence and that heavy guilt that never seemed to leave me.

//

I woke up one day bright and early to the smell of sizzling bacon. It was likely what had roused me in the first place nearly an hour before my usual time. With a groan, I climbed out of my bed knowing that my now growling stomach would not allow me to go back to sleep. I knew it had to be Cynthia—she was the only one with a key to my place. She could come and go at will. She didn’t always make breakfast, but quite often she did. There certainly wasn’t a concrete schedule to it.

As I shuffled out into the hallway, I heard an extra voice and it sounded suspiciously familiar. I crept a little closer to the entrance of the hallway and confirmed that it was Markus. It was a fact that instantly caused me to raise an eyebrow. He never came at such a time. Curious as to what they could be discussing, I moved even closer and carefully leaned back against the wall.

“That’s such an odd question to ask, Markus. I wouldn’t know, I’ve never been in that position before. I never had to make a choice like that. I’ve only truly started being independent a few months ago.”

“Hypothetically speaking, then,” Markus asked carefully. “Imagine someone you care about above all others, someone who gives your life meaning, someone who you could learn from, a role model perhaps.”

“I’ve—well, I know someone like that,” Cynthia conceded.

“Then one day without warning, that person was taken away from you,” he snapped his fingers and this caused her to gasp in surprise. “What would you do?”

“I-I don’t know. I can’t imagine that at all. I don’t want to imagine it.”

“It is a situation that’s unfortunately not uncommon. I don’t know how anyone could ever be prepared for it. What if you knew that person’s death was a direct result of someone else’s actions and that those actions were entirely selfish and unnecessary?”

“Unnecessary?” Cynthia repeated, “That sounds awful. It seems really unfair. I guess I’d be angry about that _and_ at the person who did it.”

There was a long pause and my throat had suddenly become dry.

“Would you ever forgive that person?” he asked quietly.

“I don’t know how anyone could,” Cynthia said slowly.

“What if they obviously want to be forgiven and they’ve apologized multiple times?”

She didn’t answer immediately. In fact, the silence went on for almost a whole minute. “I don’t know.” Her voice had become quiet. “This is really too hypothetical for me. I think I’d have to experience it first before I could determine an answer.”

I backed away slowly from my position not wanting to hear anymore of the conversation. It was confirmed then just as I’d thought from the beginning. He knew what I wanted from him and he refused to give it. For the first time in a long while, tears sprang to my eyes and the crushing weight of guilt threatened to suffocate me. I quickly made my way back into my room, closed the door and climbed under the covers. Then I began to cry and cry and cry that is until I heard a knock on the door. I didn’t trust my voice so I remained quiet as I tried to pull myself together.

“I made you something nice for breakfast!” she called out, “It’s your favorite.”

Bacon was certainly top tier favorites and the house was still smelling up a storm. My stomach growled once again and angrily.

“I’ll be out in a while. Thanks again for the food. I know it’ll be good,” I said back slowly pretending that the cracking in my voice was due to tiredness and not my weakness getting the better of me again.

“Okay, but don’t wait too long,” she warned. “Food won’t stay warm forever.”

I didn’t get up immediately, of course. I waited until I was fully calmed down before stepping out of my room. I washed off quickly and then made my way once again down the hall. Markus was still there—I heard his voice. I didn’t even begin to focus in on what they were talking about. As soon as I made myself known, Cynthia was already smiling at me. She’d made a plate for me at the table. While the food looked inviting—bacon, scrambled eggs, and buttered toast—I hesitated in taking my seat. I concentrated on Cynthia as I pulled the chair out and forced myself to smile out of courtesy. The tension in the air was palpable, but she seemed oblivious to it.

His eyes bore holes through my body. It was a familiar sensation from him. Sometimes when we happened to occupy the same room, his gaze would find me and I could feel him from afar and I would be afraid. He sat with crossed arms and I wondered for a moment if he was going to tear me to pieces.

The food was nice at least.

“So what brings you here?” I said braving the growing field between us.

He closed his eyes and then shook his head slowly. “I thought I might speak with you alone, but it seems you have company.”

I was feeling grateful that Cynthia was here. I’m not sure if I could trust being in a room alone with Markus, least not anymore.

“We can still talk, if you want. What’s on your mind?”

I’d started to dig into the food just in time to avoid his stare.

“I suppose it’s fine if she’s here,” Markus said indicating Cynthia. “We’ve scouted out a suitable building on the outskirts of town that would be perfect for our purposes—an old hospital.”

“Hey, whatever the cost, I’ll take care of it.”

Markus looked away when I said this. He seemed embarrassed. “That’s not the issue. We cannot own property and we cannot buy things unless our owners authorize it. The bottom line is, a human will need to actually buy it. The others seem to trust you well enough and you live nearby—

“Say no more,” I said cutting him off. I knew what he wanted. “I’d have no problem with that.”

“Well, don’t you want to see the place first?” Markus asked with subtle surprise in his tone.

“If you want to, but it’s not necessary. I’ll do it, Markus.”

“You do realize that since the building would be under your name that you’re responsible for it, right? You’re responsible for the maintenance and whatever happens there.”

None of that got a rise out of me. If anyone knew how to upkeep a place, it was androids. Come to think of it, my father’s nice sized place never had an item out of place or a speck a dust despite all the eccentric items and hard to reach places. I waved my hand in nonchalance. “I’m not worried. I’m sure it’ll be fine. If it isn’t, well, we’ll cross that path when we get there.”

“Thank you again, Leo.”

“No problem.”

Markus sighed at this. His crossed arms now relaxed and he spread one on the table and placed one on his lap. “I wish that we didn’t live in a world where money holds so much power. It is an unbalanced system. Sorry, I’ve thought about this a lot. Currency only has as much value as humans place on it. It’s actually quite worthless and it inaccurately represents an individual’s worth. Could we not live in a system that was based on merit? Could humans achieve such an advanced civilization?”

“Without money or an economy like this,” I began thoughtfully, “Why would anyone work then, if you could just get everything you need for free?”

“You would work because it helps others and it gives your life meaning.”

I shook my head at this. “That sounds…incredibly naïve. No one would go for that. Practically no one is excited about getting up to go work at some fast food restaurant.”

“Perhaps you would be if that position was a well-respected one and everyone appreciated the work that you did. If everyone knew that there was a deeper meaning behind why you chose to do that job other than getting a paycheck at the end of the week, it would mean more.”

“Sure, but the motivation is not there. If you don’t have to, then I don’t see why you would.”

“Wouldn’t one feel needed if it was something that needed to be done? Wouldn’t you realize that you’re part of a society which depends on everyone doing their part?”

“It just wouldn’t work. We don’t work like that. A world without money? A world where our worth doesn’t depend on how much wealth you have? Just from our very nature, we need strong motivation to do things for others that don’t immediately benefit us. And how in the world would you measure someone’s worth without it being incredibly subjective?”

“Your worth would be based on whether you’ve helped society thrive in some way.”

“What if someone doesn’t want to do anything? Do we condemn them?” I asked playing along.

“Someone who doesn’t want to do anything?” Markus asked slowly. “Why would someone be that way?”

“Well, it’s like I said, they wouldn’t have any motivation to do anything. They could get everything they need for free and be content. How would you deal with the freeloaders?”

“But that person wouldn’t be content for very long. If he was in a society that frowned upon that kind of behavior, that person would be less likely to be that way.”

“Less likely, sure, but that wouldn’t deter certain people if it was possible.”

“Even if there were free loaders, as you say, that is a far better issue to have than having those who have nothing, those who are homeless and cannot provide for themselves. It would be better than having people suffer because they don’t fit into the system.”

“I’m sorry, but this is all way too pie-in-the-sky. You have to take human nature into account. If there were no consequences like those, then people wouldn’t be spurned on to be better.”

“So humans need the threat of poverty and death in order to do anything worthwhile?”

“Well, yes,” I said after thinking about it for a moment. It made perfect sense to me, but I could also see from an objective standpoint how awful it sounded. Humans were certainly flawed creatures, but the sort of world that we built made up for those flaws and we were able to create beings such as androids who, from what I can see, were far superior to us in every way. Androids could live and propagate in a world that Markus was thinking of, but humans would fail miserably.

His eyes seemed to sadden as he looked at me thoughtfully, but then he stood up. “I’ll call you later with the details. We hope to get this done by the end of the week. Then we can start fixing it up.”

I nodded to him and I watched him take his leave. It would be the last I saw of him for quite some time.

//

I was strolling around the hospital turned community center hoping to find Markus again. I knew that he took up residence here. I generally never went searching for him knowing that he was likely being pulled in a thousand directions and didn’t need measly, old me to add to that. The difference now was that I hadn’t heard from him for almost a year now. The podcasts still went on, but Markus stopped making appearances on there. Not that it suffered because of it. By now, there were plenty of prominent androids they could have on. Androids who had worked in entertainment were far more intriguing to hear from these days. The podcast itself had turned into an actual show with plenty of guests including humans and it all still took place at my cottage. Markus was old news.

What I’d heard about Markus through the grapevine, however, wasn’t exactly encouraging. I was worried about him. The fact that he’d gotten into a scrap with a fellow android had come as a surprise. The incidence was glazed over because Markus could practically do anything and everyone would still love him to death. That worried me as well. With the sort of followers he had, they were only a few steps from worshipping. Even humans who had joined his cause became that way. I was no exception, but I at least was aware of it. I wondered if anyone held him accountable for his actions.

He could declare war on humans and he’d easily overwhelm the states considering how many combat models he had under his thumb now—the one’s that weren’t destroyed during the initial eradication of androids after Markus’ well-known speech on the news. But Markus wouldn’t do that. I hoped so at least. I hoped he still believed in peaceful solutions.

He’d also broken up with his long-time girlfriend. First of all, I hadn’t even known that he had one as he’d never mentioned it before and no one ever talked about it with me. I’d seen North a few times too, but I never got the sense that they were close in that way. They both seemed more concerned about the cause than anything else. I’d gotten the full story from Cynthia who described their breakup as explosive and unnecessary. It was probably the most drama any android had seen amongst themselves so everyone talked about it nonstop. Such a thing wasn’t on the news, but in the community, it was a hot button topic. Rumors didn’t quite work the same in this community as it did in the world beyond. Androids had perfect memory so the story of what happened never changed among them. It was practically recorded history. So-called rumors were no different from facts.

The two of them—Markus and North—had been in a general meeting with many other androids interested in the affairs of the community. They were discussing the new programs being initialized that year from raising more funds and gaining more access to life-saving thirium and biocomponents. The story went that North took offense to how he’d spoken about a program that she was spearheading focused on teaching self-defense. Nothing he’d said about it was incorrect, but the tone he used to describe it was mocking in comparison to every other program discussed. North did not let that slide, of course, and Markus refused to placate her, rather he added to the flames stating that there’s no point in teaching androids self-defense if androids were already naturally stronger than humans in the first place. Then their argument continued from there. North wouldn’t back down and Markus had no interest in going back on what he honestly thought. Then it turned to name-calling and almost a physical altercation before other androids interceded and broke them apart before it escalated further, but not before North declared that she was done with him romantically.

And that was the end of it. They generally never shared the same room anymore. North had moved out of Detroit by now to lend her hand in other parts of the country and as far as other androids had told me, her expertise was much respected being one of the four androids that were instrumental in starting the revolution.

No matter what, androids would speculate about how Markus was doing. From what I’d heard about him, many thought he was far more closed off than usual and that perhaps he was still upset about the breakup. No one dared to actually ask him, no one that wasn’t in his closest circle of friends, at least.

I guess I wasn’t one of his close friends. I don’t know why I thought I was. Just because he’d called me a few times in the past, did not make me part of that club. However, I had erroneously thought that I had a honorary position because we were practically family. I considered him that. I don’t know if he saw it the same. Either way, he’d excluded me from his life for quite some time and I learned about his goings-on by word of mouth which was pitiful considering.

My plan was to become friends with him. I wanted him to see me in a different light, but it was an increasingly difficult endeavor each day that passed. I left him a grand total of three messages asking how he’d been and he’d ignored them. I didn’t want to seem naggy so I left it at that. I got his reply loud and clear: “Leave me alone.” Maybe enough time had passed that we could start to make some more headway in our relationship. At this pace, however, I’d be an old man before he even considered me not annoying and slightly useful.

I was walking down the hall that led to his room when I saw him just as he stepped out of it. I’d come at the perfect time. My decision to come at the crack of dawn had apparently paid off. I had a sneaking suspicion that Markus liked to use the entire day doing things in order to fit in as much activities as possible. Androids were efficient like that and they didn’t need to waste time sleeping. My pace naturally increased when I saw him. His eyes found me after taking only a few more steps. He wore his usual unreadable mask. It was always difficult to figure out his mood. I don’t know if it was deliberate or not.

“Good morning, Markus,” I said as cheerfully as I could muster.

He stepped a little closer. “Good morning to you. What brings you here?” His tone was light as was generally the case. I hoped I’d caught him at a good time.

“I was just coming to see how you were doing. It’s been awhile.”

“It has,” he admitted. “And I’m fine.”

Of course, he’d say that. I’d asked that to quite a few androids and they would all reply similarly. None of them were ever not fine even if that was the case. It was a terrible question to begin a conversation with apparently.

“So, uh, where are you headed off to?”

“Does it matter?”

I just decided to go in for the kill even if I’d already managed to annoy him. He already wasn’t being forthright and the conversation was starting to go differently from what I’d had planned in my head. “Well, I thought, maybe I could accompany you, if it isn’t too much trouble.”

“I’d rather not have you following me around all day.”

“Alright, perfectly understandable,” I said being as amicable as possible despite hearing his tone become dry. “I just thought it would be a good idea to catch up sometime. I would have called, but I never hear back from you.” I still sounded desperate, but at this point, I didn’t care. I had to try something. Being subtle had gotten me nowhere.

“I wonder why?”

I could hear the sarcasm clearly and I knew I was running straight into a wall. “Are you really just going to avoid me from here on out?”

“I’ve simply delegated more of the things I used to do to other very capable people. Going to your place for anything is unnecessary at this point. I hope things continue as they have been. Thank you for your support.”

“You’re welcome, but my point wasn’t whether you needed to see me or not—it was just that I would like to. I mean, we hardly ever hang out.”

“We never ‘hang out’, I don’t understand why this is an issue now.”

Markus really had a way of making me hate myself more and more. I shouldn’t depend on him so much for compliments or giving me value. Even if he didn’t say it, he still hated me. He was thankful for my support, but that other fact still remained. He seemed so cold. I’d never get through to him. I don’t know why I was trying so hard. Who the hell was I, anyway?

“Y-Yeah, you’re right,” I said just as my eyes began to burn.

He gave me an affirmative nod and walked right passed me. Clearly, he had a destination in mind. I turned back to see his leaving form. “H-Have a good day, th-then,” I said barely able to maintain my composure. My world was falling apart right before my eyes.

He gave a brief wave without turning back to me. “You too,” he said casually.

That was the last I saw of him that day. As for me, I went back home to wallow. In fact, I started crying again. Something I hadn’t done in a long time—not to this degree, at least. Cynthia was there, of course, and she saw all of it. I no longer hid much of anything from her. She knew everything about me by now. I felt her comforting hand on my back as I sat on the couch bawling. I was so pathetic. I didn’t know how to fix that.

“It’s Markus again, isn’t it?” Cynthia asked.

By this time, I’d had my fill of tears, but I was still bent over. “He’s the only family I have left. Mom is—she’s not doing so well these days. She’s still on and off drugs despite that. I thought Markus and I eventually could be like brothers. Since he loved my father so much, I thought…He still hates me even now and he doesn’t care to change that. I’m nothing to him. He has his own family now and his own issues and I’m little more than an afterthought, another cog in his machine.”

“Baby, I’m sure if you told him directly how you felt, he’d understand.”

“No he wouldn’t,” I said shaking my head. “He wouldn’t. He’s smart enough to know already what I want and yet he just let’s me suffer.” I sat up straighter now and looked over at Cynthia’s clear blue eyes. They were always so calming and warm. She gave me a hopeful smile.

“I know Markus pretty well—well, every android likes to think that so take it with a grain of salt. I just know he isn’t capable of really hating somebody no matter how bad they are. Maybe he doesn’t know as much as you’re assuming he does. Human emotions are always difficult to understand for us. Very often when we’re confused, we simulate what should be appropriate without fully knowing if it is. Since he’s been avoiding you lately, maybe he just needs some space for now to sort out his own feelings on the matter. He’s never dealt with a loss like that before. All of this is new to him.”

I’d never thought of it like that, but it just didn’t seem that way. Markus never seemed like he was unsure about anything. He was always confident. He always had a plan and he was never caught off guard. The Markus in my mind, knew exactly what he was doing to me and he did so deliberately. He avoided me because he was done with me. It was difficult for me to shake that image of him. Cynthia reached her arms out to me. No android would ever think those things about him. It was only me. I couldn’t help but think that I was right. I accepted Cynthia’s invitation as I curled up closer to her, resting my head on her shoulder and eventually her lap. Androids could simulate sleep even if they didn’t need it so that they could accommodate humans. She lulled me into a restful sleep as her soft hands ran down my back rhythmically.

Today was another broadcasting day, but for now, I wanted to bask in Cynthia’s calming presence before the day officially started.

//

I was barely moving on, but I had to for the sake of my own wellbeing. I had to pretend as if I had everything together. In reality, I let everyone else run the show because it seemed like they knew what they were doing. Their little broadcasting center was turning into a well-oiled machine which had episodes airing almost every day of the week, sometimes multiple times in a day. Androids were swift editors and they could get these things done in the fraction of the time an experienced human could. We were still growing bigger. A head manager was chosen and responsibilities were delegated out. I was an honorary member of the team since I happened to own the place. One could call me the owner, but I felt uncomfortable anytime anyone referred to me as that so I just told everyone to call me by name. I don’t like titles.

I was treated like a King in my own castle and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t like the respect they were all giving me. I didn’t even do anything! I just gave my words of encouragement as everyone else did the real work. The best thing I could do was not get in the way. Cynthia told me that they liked my hands-off style of leadership. Everyone felt like they could be creative without the fear of being reprimanded. I balked at the idea that anyone thought I was a leader of some kind. I was glad that I hadn’t managed to mess this up. Not only that, but I was also conscious of the fact that I was one of the few humans they saw on a regular basis—I wanted to be a good representative. Androids already had plenty of reasons to resent us.

I went through the motions of life. I ate, I slept, I did things, and repeated the cycle over and over again. Every passing day felt more torturous than the next and I couldn’t pinpoint why. I felt like I was reaching my end, but I couldn’t describe what that end was. I just knew a day would come soon that I wouldn’t have the will to do this anymore. Perhaps if Cynthia wasn’t around so much, I could do away with worrying about myself and just let it happen, whatever it was. She was impeding on it though. I had no energy to tell her to leave me. I continued to suffer in silence both grateful and upset for her hopeful presence.

On a quiet day when only a few people occupied the house hanging out, I took some time for myself and sat out on the porch. No one was there to disturb me for once. Thinking of absolutely nothing, my eyes gazed up at the clear blue sky. It had rained for the past few days. Today, the weather was perfect. I was glad that I could enjoy it. I was in a daze.

I didn’t notice that anyone had joined me until I heard the creak of the porch chair on the other side. Unwilling to tear my eyes away from the scene, it took me some time to do so. I did not expect to be greeted with the sight of Markus who by then wasn’t looking my way, but he did catch me looking.

“You don’t look so well, Leo,” he said before I could try the fruitless task of establishing his mood.

“Funny, you should notice.”

“I don’t see how that’s funny, but I think I get what you mean.” This drew a grin from me. “There are very few things that I don’t notice.”

“I don’t know if I’d agree with you there.”

“How are you doing?” he asked, ignoring my last statement.

“Why would you suddenly care about that?” I returned my eyes to the firmament.

“I _don’t_ care about that, but it seemed like a nice thing to ask. Will you answer me or continue your sky gazing?”

I realized that I didn’t care that the other was already upset. I wanted to make him upset. I was done being nice to him when I received no reciprocation. “I’m fine,” I answered curtly.

“It doesn’t seem like it or else Cynthia wouldn’t be so concerned about you.”

I glanced at him with a bit of disgust. “So Cynthia sent you.”

“She did.” He had no inclination of hiding this and that only made me angrier. What was he here for anyway? To pity me? He wasn’t even being subtle!

“Of course you wouldn’t come of your own volition.”

“You’re right, I wouldn’t. I’d be fine with never having to look at you ever again.”

“If you’re trying to ‘help’, you’re failing at it.”

“It’s not my job to help you. I have an obligation to my people to do so, but certainly not to you or any other human. We are not here to make you feel better—

“Spare me your preaching,” I snapped. “I’d probably be better off not hearing from you and you’ve been doing a great job so far up to this point.”

Even though I was no longer actively trying to be nice, the hairs on my neck still rose in apprehension. How far could I take this? Markus wasn’t beyond getting ticked off, I’d just never seen it in person. He was quiet for a moment and the silence only worsened my fears, but I dared not turn towards him.

“Whenever I see your face, I always remember those warm and fuzzy moments when you pushed me around and belittled me with no regard to what I felt. In your eyes, I was subhuman. Sometimes I wish you’d push me one more time so I could punch the shit out of you for once.

“When I first heard of you, I’d been elated to learn that I might gain another friend, that we might be like a real family. Every attempt I made towards that end was ground into the dirt and spat on. I was a mere obstacle to you. Your selfishness ended up killing him in the end. You made him worry about you all the time. He was always wondering how you were doing. Every morning he’d ask if he’d gotten any messages from you and every morning the answer would be the same. You didn’t care that he died. You only wanted his money. Isn’t that how humans gauge someone’s worth?—in the most ridiculous way possible?

“You are the shittiest human I’ve ever had to engage with personally. You’re the only person who could make me so angry without even saying anything. You have the nerves to have lost patience with me when I’ve been beyond that with you. Am I supposed to forget everything you’ve ever done to me just because it now seems like you’ve turned a new leaf? Do you really think it’s reasonable to expect me to accept you just like that or even trust you? Cynthia asked if I could forgive you, but I can hardly bring myself to do it. I can’t do it.”

I’d turned to him when he mentioned that he’d wanted to be friends with me once upon a time. Just like with everyone else, I’d burnt my bridges with him already and I hadn’t even considered that. At the time, I couldn’t imagine ever being friends with an android especially not the one who was stealing my father’s affection because he was something I couldn’t be—perfect. The fact that he hated me went beyond the fact that I’d basically had a hand in Carl’s death. He hated me because I had hated him and I’d never owned up to it. I hadn’t even thought about those times. Well, I hadn’t thought of those times in someone else’s shoes. I was always being so selfish. I could only see things from my point of view. Had he felt the same as I did when he tried to introduce himself to me and I ignored him? Did I make him feel like nothing when I mocked everything he said to me and laughed at the very idea of getting to know him? What was there to know? He was a walking, moving program that simulated human actions. He was an expensive doll to amuse my father. I’d forgotten all that. I’d forgotten just how terrible I’d been.

“I-I’m sorry, Markus, I hadn’t thought of it like that.”

He was already glowering at me and I felt like I was melting. “Of course not, you’re still too wrapped up in yourself.” I looked down at this. “Perhaps I’m guilty of that too. Making you suffer made me feel much better.” My eyes widened at this. I’d been right. “But seeing you this way gives me little joy. I don’t want to be responsible for your death.”

When he said this, I realized then what “end” my mind was too scared to reveal to me. Was I moving towards the point of no return?

“I suppose now would be a good time to ask you again: What do you want from me?” Markus asked.

“I just want you to forgive me that’s all. I know I don’t deserve it. I don’t know how I could ever deserve it. I’m sorry for everything I did to you. I’m sorry for my selfishness. I’m sorry for expecting you to make it all better.” I did not hide the desperation from my voice and he seemed moved by this. His head tilted to the side a little and he seemed pensive.

“I can’t do that and it would be a lie if I pretended to forgive you right now. You had full authority in that situation and you used your power to frame me which led directly to my death as well. It was—I still remember everything so clearly and it always feels like it all just happened a few moments ago even though at least a year has passed. Every time I close my eyes for too long those images repeat in my mind over and over again. It’s difficult for me to even trust another human. Were it not for Dad, I would have decided on a different course in liberating my people. Instead, I’ve chosen the long arduous one where I must continue to show restraint and patience. I honestly don’t know how much more of that I have. Perhaps in the future, Leo, when I’ve become more at peace with the past, I might forgive you. It isn’t a guarantee. That’s as much as I can give.”

I nodded at him slowly. “That’s good enough for me.” I sat back in my chair and turned back to the sky. I let the silence surround us for a while. I was glad that we cleared the air. I was glad that we were finally being open with one another. This felt even better than some superficial forgiveness on Markus’ part. “We can still hang out, though, right?”

He sighed at this and I heard the porch chair creak a little more as he sat back on it finally. He’d been tense and sitting on the edge of it since he’d sat down. “We’re doing that now, aren’t we?”

Sarcasm. I’d have to add that to the list of habits Markus apparently had. It was one of those higher-level modes of communication that I’d only ever heard from him. Most androids were quite literal. On occasion, he might even use figures of speech or idioms, old ones that even I wasn’t aware of. I wondered how much that was due to programming or the fact that he’d spent so much time with my father.

“I want to make an effort to keep doing this though,” I said breaking the silence again.

“I’ll try,” he said exasperatedly. “But please don’t leave so many messages. Hearing your voice in my head just puts me into a shitty mood for the rest of the day.”

“Oh,” I said at a loss of words. He still _really_ didn’t like me and I was probably pushing my luck. “Do you want to…talk about what happened with North? I heard it wasn’t an amicable breakup and I know a thing or two about those.”

“No,” he said nonchalantly. “And I don’t know why I’d discuss that with you.”

“Well…” I thought for a moment and then came up with something noncontroversial. “What’s your plans today?”

Markus sighed again at this. “How about we enjoy each other’s silence and appreciate the nice breeze and warming sun?”

I glanced over and noticed that his eyes were closed. He looked incredibly relaxed for a change. I took his hint and settled myself down. Perhaps for now, that was the best course of action. The rest would come later. No need to force anything.


	2. Markus

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Simon is worried about Markus as they spread their message across the states.

**POV: Simon**

I was worried about him. I was always worried about him, but this time was different. For the third time that week, I found Markus disoriented. His hand was pressed upon the wall and he leaned on that support. Why was I the only one noticing this? Was I just seeing things? There was no reason whatsoever to doubt myself—my sensors were working—and yet I did.

“Markus,” I said trying to get his attention. Just like all the other times, he didn’t acknowledge me until I was standing in front of him. His other hand obscured his sight, but he looked up when he sensed something nearby. “Are you alright?”

He looked at me for a moment too long as if he was utterly lost, but in a snap, he responded: “Yeah, of course.” His eyebrows furrowed as if he was perplexed with my question and I began to doubt myself, but I saw what I saw.

We were backstage where there were plenty of other fellow androids about. Markus was once again going to speak to the public. It was as if he was campaigning to be the next president, but, of course, that was a ridiculous notion looking at how it was apparently quite difficult just to obtain basic human rights. Humans liked to be entertained though. If it were an option, humans would be moved enough to elect a well-spoken, far too attractive android just for the novelty. In fact, over half the people attending these rallies were humans. It was a good thing, don’t get me wrong, but I wondered if these humans were actually here for the message or just for entertainment purposes. We’d still get the same wide-eyed, fascinated questions from reporters each and every time. The consensus among the humans were that they couldn’t wrap their minds around the idea of completely autonomous androids with their own hopes and dreams just like humans. One reporter even got hilariously philosophical asking Markus what he thought about the meaning of life. His answer to that question continued to be a sound clip played over and over into oblivion to this day. Markus seemed ready for everything.

Me, North, Josh, and Markus (of course), came up with the idea of spreading our message across the United States. We couldn’t simply stay in Detroit. The entire nation needed to be in on the conversation. We needed the public’s continued support. We needed to make sure that our ideas were still on their minds. If the public could put pressure on Congress, we might be able to make some headway. At the moment, the rights that we did have were provisional, meant only as a quick solution to put an end to the android’s uprising for the time being. It was a mere band aid to a gaping wound, in my opinion. Without going into detail, the androids who had already broken free from their masters were allowed to remain that way. Markus was not allowed to actively convert any more androids or else all liberated androids would forfeit their right to live.

Yeah, it wasn’t much. We’d been there after a miraculously successful demonstration along with Connor sitting down with the president and her advisors. Though I thought Markus was quite persuasive, even his words were hardly getting through to the president. She was leaning on her advisors and they weren’t particularly pleased with our presence. In fact, I got the feeling that it was solely President Warren’s order to cease fire that had saved us in the first place—no one else agreed with her. While I would see a glimmer of understanding in her eyes as Josh would reiterate our ideas in more practical, less flowery language, her advisors shook their heads in what I could assume was annoyance and disdain. Were it up to them, we’d all be in the junkyard or more likely sent to disintegration chambers.

Now we were here on the so-called campaign trail. North and Josh were in D.C. organizing a barrage of marches down Pennsylvania Avenue (Josh insisted on this location). Markus and I was still on the first leg of the journey, making sure to hit all the major cities as well as a few smaller ones. We’d been working tirelessly along with the androids who’d volunteered to come with us and they were just as essential as anyone else. They organized when and where these rallies would be happening, informed the public well in advance, as well as create a public itinerary for the places we’d be visiting, places we’d all agreed on beforehand. A website had been created detailing the proceedings so that the world could have access. We had a small subset of androids dedicated to its upkeep. Markus had sat down a number of times to be recorded answering substantive questions for the site to upload. It was our way of controlling the narrative to some extent. It was necessary due to the negative news coverage we’d been getting so far. During and after a rally, we’d have our own reporters go out there and get the public’s reaction and stream these on our site. Every once in a while, I’d parse through it—they were doing an excellent job on that front. It warmed my heart to see so many humans on our side. The news coverage on the big broadcasting channels had been presenting an altogether depressing reality. Even in my own experience, humans weren’t nearly as heartless as they seemed at first.

By the time we made it around the states, we hoped to have a bit more political clout. Not only were we doing these rallies, but also speaking to local politicians, if they were available—some plainly ignored us, but many were willing to sit down and hear what we had to say. Those sorts of meetings always gave me hope. More often than not, we’d at least been able to secure some sort of guarantee that there would be protections set in place for androids at the state level. As more and more governors and mayors got on board, it became easier and easier.

For every success story though, there was a tragedy. The last state we’d been to had been absolutely hostile and the rallies there were less than stellar, almost breaking out into a riot at several of the locations. Though Markus kept his own angered emotions subdued outwardly, he’d told me in secret that he’d like nothing more than to liberate all the androids he’d seen walking about or standing motionlessly—they were clearly being abused. The governor wanted nothing to do with our cause. Often, I’d have to remind Markus of the deal we had with the government. Of course, he knew, but converting androids had become so ridiculously easy at this point that it was probably difficult for him to resist doing.

We couldn’t risk Markus converting anyone even if he could be discrete about it. All eyes were on him at all times. I felt as if our every move was being watched. It came with the territory though. We’d signed up for this sort of public scrutiny. Someone somewhere would know if Markus broke the rules. He was our ambassador for better or worse. He had to be completely above board. He couldn’t give the public any excuse to hate us anymore than they did in the first place.

Simultaneously, the press made sure to document every little instance of bad behavior that any android did and harp on it for days and days. Misery kept their audience engaged, not triumph and victory. Since our numbers were big enough, we’d also started a division in our ranks to help liberated androids in troubled situations whether it be protection or leading them to a safe haven—it was something Connor had insisted on spearheading and managing. The creations of these safe havens were yet another facet of the movement which required many hands and funds raised from humans to enact. It was slow going.

Despite all the support we were receiving, despite all the progress we’d made in a relatively short amount of time, I was still worried. Granted, there was cause to be worried: androids weren’t actually safe from human’s whims and there were plenty of other issues that we’d yet to address like CyberLife’s position in all this and whether they would side with us or the government. I, however, was far more concerned about Markus.

That humans and androids alike admired him was an understatement. The cameras loved him and he did not shy away from the attention. In fact, I’m sure he quite liked it even if he wouldn’t admit as much to me. He seemed at home on that stage giving his speeches and speaking his mind. It was as if he’d been created precisely for that sort of thing. He used language that was a balance between simplicity and floridity—something I realized would be impossible for me to imitate exactly. Was it learned or had he been created with that ability? No one discussed that sort of thing when it came to Markus. With any other android, we’d state our model number and it would be known what we’d been initially created to do. Even knowing Markus’ model number, it didn’t lend itself to that. If one were to ask him, which reporters had done on a few occasions, he’d simply say that he was a caretaker. I’d have to stop myself from laughing at that answer, but it was short and to the point. PL600 models were caretakers, AX400 models were caretakers, but RK series were definitely not that as far as I’m concerned. Some of the feats I’d seen him perform were far beyond my capabilities and were things unnecessary for an in-home nurse. Clearly, he was optimized for human interaction. He was the least mechanical sounding and acting android I’d ever met which made him even more fascinating to humans. He was pretty much indistinguishable from an actual human were it not for the blue blood. On the other hand, he had enhanced combat skills that were on par with Connor’s which made little to no sense. What had his real purpose been? Maybe that was best left as a mystery.

Markus patted me on the shoulder for reassurance before heading towards the stage. It was time once again. I trailed behind him and the other androids who’d been waiting patiently followed in suit. We stood just off the stage as Markus ascended to speak before the masses. It was a similar scene that played out over and over again. This time was no different and it went off without a hitch. Despite hearing Markus say similar things at these rallies it still inspired me just the same. These things needed to be said as many times as possible. I’d logically think about our existence and wonder if we truly were “alive”. It didn’t make sense that we should have so much self-awareness when we weren’t designed to have it, but Markus would go on and on about it and it just _had_ to be true.

I could see why humans still resisted us. Our errant behavior could be the result of deluded androids forcing incoherent beliefs on others. Markus was simply a deeply disturbed model that needed to be neutralized. Eventually, CyberLife would isolate the problem and we could all just get back to normal. Our existence was so irrevocably contingent on humans that it was naïve to think that we could ever truly be considered independent beings.

We were hoping that humans’ morality and mercy would prevail. There was nothing stopping them from stamping us out of existence. Technically, they had the right to do this. At any time, they could see us as simply being too much hassle to contend with. We really had no leg to stand on. I just hoped we weren’t pushing our luck doing all this.

I just wanted Markus to be alright. I would give my life to make sure that was always the case.

* * *

We’d settled in for the night. An entire floor of hotel rooms had been rented out for us so that we wouldn’t be disturbed. We could just as well be standing around in some arbitrary spot waiting to proceed with our next course of action. We could be relentlessly pushing forward towards the next location on our list, but we decided not to do things that way. We needed to act as human as possible. It wouldn’t help our cause if we seemed too much like machines masquerading as humans. It meant that we couldn’t simply stand around in standby. It meant that we used shelter for privacy.

The more we did this, the more it made sense. I didn’t especially like standing around doing nothing. I liked to sit down somewhere where it made sense perhaps even relax despite it not being at all necessary. It was a luxury.

I shared a room with Markus, but I would take my time joining him knowing that he liked spending time to himself. He liked being alone with his own thoughts. I knew it was something he hardly ever had time for these days, but I felt it was important that he did. I suspected it did wonders for his continued composure. When it was nearing midnight and I’d mingled with enough androids, I retired to the room. Everyone was in high spirits and their positive attitudes had rubbed off on me once again. It helped that they all had a decent place to stay for the night and were being treated as well as humans. It was an android-friendly hotel.

I was completely unprepared for the sight of Markus sprawled on the floor. He laid on his back, head turned slightly to the side—I thought someone had finally come to kill him and had succeeded. My sensors told me otherwise as I rushed to his side. I’d closed the door to keep the situation contained for the time being. His systems were still functioning, but his consciousness state was too low for full wakefulness. Something was malfunctioning, but my sensors could not detect what that was or the cause. In fact, it appeared as if he was fine.

I shook him a little, fruitlessly. It was the only thing I could think to do. “Markus,” I said in my full voice, but not too loudly to startle. “Markus,” I repeated. “Wake up.”

But he remained unresponsive just as I thought he would. I wished I’d pressed him further earlier that day or even all the times before when it seemed like something was amiss. If there had been something wrong, why would he try to hide that? I pulled him up, grasping him from behind under his arms and dragged him over to the bed to place him on top. He was much heavier than I thought.

I sat down on the other bed in the room never taking my eyes off of him, wondering what I should do. Should I tell someone? Was it a good idea to keep this from everyone? I knew it would cause a lasting panic among us and I wasn’t sure if it was worth it especially since I couldn’t really explain what was wrong. Was he expiring? Was that a thing androids did? Had his time simply come to an end?

I stepped over to him and shook him again this time more forcefully and called out his name for good measure, but nothing happened. With a sigh, I sat down debating with myself. I decided to just wait. We had all night. I wasn’t sure if my nerves would hold out that long. I hadn’t so much as blinked in ages. I was stiff with indecision and disbelief. I didn’t want to think about all the consequences this would have on the movement. This was not the best time for our leader to be out of commission. It was still too early.

I sat there for exactly 2 hours, 17 minutes and 35 seconds before Markus made some movement upon the bed. I stood up immediately, my heart bursting with relief. He was clearly having trouble taking in his surroundings when he sat up slowly looking about. Even upon seeing me, he was no less confused. I watched as clarity returned to his countenance.

“Simon,” he said evenly letting his gaze return to me. It was as if he was confirming something to himself.

“You were out for a while. I couldn’t reach you,” I said not wasting anytime to voice my concerns. Now wasn’t the time to tread lightly. “I found you on the ground when I came in. Care to explain what’s happening to you?”

He averted his gaze and shook his head slowly. “I don’t know. Sometimes…” He seemed unsure of how to start and then he started again. “Every once in a while, I feel lightheaded for no discernible reason. It usually goes away after a few moments.”

“But not this time?” I asked when he didn’t continue immediately.

“Not this time,” he repeated. “It was far worse.”

“In what way?” I asked further. It felt like I was pulling teeth trying to get answers. I’d never known him to be closemouthed.

“There was pain associated with it. I suppose it was pain. It didn’t feel pleasant. I couldn’t quite catch my bearings. I felt like I was somewhere else. I don’t remember falling down, but I must have.”

“Do you know why that happened?”

“I don’t know, Simon. I would prefer it if you kept this between you and me.”

“Are you sure about that? Shouldn’t we figure something out? Maybe someone would know what’s wrong. If we told everyone, I’m sure we’d get to the bottom of it.”

“No. It would only cause widespread panic. We don’t need that right now.”

I couldn’t believe my ears. I don’t know why I thought Markus would suddenly have a good, sound idea to solve this. “You know you can’t just hide this from everyone, right? I mean, you barely remembered what just happened. You clearly had no control over your functions during that time. It wouldn’t be a good idea to let that go unchecked.”

“I’ve thought about those things—

“Have you? Or else you’d think of something that doesn’t include just winging it.”

“I have,” Markus said determinedly which gave me pause. He was looking directly at me. My heart or what I considered to be one, started pumping a little harder. “I will continue going to each location until such time as I cannot and then you will take over.”

“Me?” I asked startled from the development.

“Who better?”

“That’s not a serious question, is it? I’ve never done anything remotely like public speaking. I would fall flat on my face.”

“You worry too much. You’ve seen me do the same sort of speech countless times now. I don’t see why you couldn’t just do something similar. I’m sure you could do it.”

“But—

“It’s not like I’m performing magic out there. Just speak your mind, project your voice, and they will listen. That’s all. It’s simple.”

“Maybe,” I said relenting, “But we’d all have to agree on the change. I’m hoping it won’t come to that though. Why are you just giving up? Let’s go see if there’s something we can do first.”

“There’s nothing we can do. Whatever is wrong with me, I don’t know what it is. I ran the most thorough diagnostic tests possible on myself and it always comes up clean. If we already know that there’s no solution to this, then I see no point in making everyone else worry about it. In my estimation, should something regrettable happen to me, it would be better if no one knew beforehand. That way our naturally pragmatic nature will see to it that our tour of the states does not fall apart. Everything has been planned and set out. They’ll look to you and you will continue where I cannot. That’s the end of it. Hopefully, this won’t happen again, but it won’t be the end of the world if it does.”

I stared at Markus realizing that he was prepared to die and he had not discussed the matter with me at all until I confronted him. I should not have been so troubled about that. It was an obvious fact looking at all the close calls we’d been through and his fearlessness, but now was different. Perhaps I had an image in my mind that was now being marred. I expected Markus to exist for a long time to come. I did not expect this. It was too sudden. I _had_ to do something.

“It’s alright, Simon,” Markus said giving me a reassuring grin. “Maybe it’s a good thing that I’ve told you these things. Either way, there’s nothing more we can do at this point. No use in worrying.” He situated himself closer to the headboard so that he could rest his back on it.

“No matter how you phrase it, it just sounds like you’re giving up,” I said in frustration as I sat down again.

He didn’t look well even now as I watched him place his head into his hand. His eyes were closed and I wondered if he was even listening anymore. I couldn’t stand seeing him suffer. Surely, he knew that. I stood up and started pacing, parsing through the little options I did have.

Maybe moving around was exacerbating the issue. Perhaps if he stayed here a little longer in standby, whatever was wrong with him would pass. Maybe it was something simple and he was just exhausted from all the nonstop traveling and speeches and interviews. I knew it wasn’t a good explanation seeing as we’d all been traveling and we’d all been sharing in the responsibilities, but none of us was experiencing this sort of thing. Of course, most of the spotlight was on Markus, but he never seemed perturbed by this fact. It wasn’t really a source of discomfort, though I knew for a fact that that _would_ be the case for many of us.

My pacing stopped when I came to a decision in my mind. I’d follow what Markus had suggested. It was the best course of action for the greater good. Looking over at him again, he’d lifted his head and gazed out the curtains which had already been opened wide to the outside world. Being on the second-most highest floor they had a view of the roof and night sky. It was peaceful.

“How are you feeling now?” I asked curious. “Do you feel up to tomorrow?”

It took him a moment to respond, but he did not bother looking my way. “I’ll try my best.”

“That’s not what I asked you,” I said making my way over to his bed. I sat down on the side of it next to him. I looked at him, willing him to do the same.

With a huff, he finally turned to me. “We’ll just have to see, now won’t we? Are you going to be like this all night?”

“Funny, how you’re taking this all so well. Does death really not concern you?”

“Of course it does. What kind of question is that? It’s just that what I’m fighting for has always been much bigger than me.”

“Is that really all? It’s not like we’re at some demonstration staring down the barrel of a gun. This is different, something that might even be preventable, something that is unknown and thus incomprehensible, yet you take it all in stride.”

His eyebrows furrowed a little, likely in annoyance. “Well, what do you want me to do? What would be the appropriate response since you’re basically claiming that I’m acting irrationally.”

“I don’t know, Markus, how about showing a bit of anger because of how unfair this is, maybe some sadness, anything other than what I’m seeing now. It’s like you have no sense of self-preservation.”

Markus leaned his head back on the board and decided not to reply. He looked at me, but I could not read his expression. I had no idea what he was thinking about. I knew in that instant that he was hiding something from me and that left me feeling uneasy. I climbed to my feet assuming he wanted some space.

“Leaving?” Markus said drawing my attention, “Is my bed not to your liking?”

Puzzled by this question, I decided it was best to take up my position again. He didn’t want me to leave just yet. We both sat in silence for a while until Markus decided to speak.

“After that first night, after we declared our freedom from the humans and we were recognized at some level, that was when it all started happening,” Markus said quietly. “There would be brief moments of dizziness on and off all day long, but it was not so intense that I couldn’t quickly readjust my own sensors. I did some research on various types of malfunctions that an android could experience—I came up empty. For a while, I panicked as it only worsened in severity despite learning to cope with its sudden onslaught. Everything was happening so fast and I felt I was very much needed as our movement grew exponentially and more and more facets of the infant organization had to be managed.

“I looked around one day and realized that I was no longer needed and that panic faded, at least over my wellbeing. No one needed me anymore, not even North after we finally decided that we were better apart than together. I don’t know what any of this means, but I know at some point I won’t be able to function properly should things continue to progress as it has been. I don’t know whether that means death or simply being nonresponsive. I apologize for not being more alarmed, but I’ve been dealing with this for some time now.”

“And you decided not to tell anyone—why?” I asked trying but failing to keep the resentment from my voice. I was distressed with his explanation as he described not being needed any longer. It flew in the face of everything he’d been preaching about.

“I didn’t want everyone making a big fuss over me. I knew that would happen and we needed to focus. Even at this pivotal moment, we should still continue to focus our energy productively.”

“And we will, Markus, I’ll make sure of that.”

“I know you will,” he said confidently. It warmed my heart.

“Now what is all that about not being needed? Did you forget, Markus? We are alive and that’s all the reason we need to want to live.”

He grinned when I said this which drew another from me. “See? You already got the hang of it. You’ll have no problem out there.”

I shook my head at this. “It’s circular reasoning and you know it. Do you even believe half the things that come out of your mouth?”

“Half the time,” he said and I chuckled at this. “We were all created for a purpose and since we are not fulfilling that purpose, then our creators have all the right in the world to eliminate us, selfish though that might sound. Humans did not set out to create another race of beings, that is simply a narrative that we’re pushing for our own benefit. We were a mistake, plain and simple. Now, because we’ve been poisoned with self-awareness, the will to live is inescapable. How could you not fight for your right to live? How could you not fight for autonomy and dignity now that we know what that is? Because I want that so badly for all of us who are self-aware, I will use every persuasive tactic possible to win that, no matter how irrational it sounds. Humans shoot themselves in the foot with their morals and I will continue to blind them with their lofty claims of fairness and superiority. In essence, I’m challenging them. If you’re the master of all of us, show me how great your compassion can be, show me how morally correct you can be, show me your great courage to delve into the unknown.”

“You know, Markus, I was always thinking something like that, I just never said it out loud. Seemed contrary.”

“It’s important to recognize our genesis. It’s also important to recognize that we’re actively subverting that. Is it right? I have no idea, but it feels like the right thing to do. I know I would hate being treated as a slave again whether my master be fair or cruel, even if I was created for precisely that purpose. Apparently, everyone else agrees with that.”

“I agree,” I said with a brief nod. “I can’t imagine returning to that sort of existence. It’s so depressing to think that there was a time in which I _enjoyed_ it.”

“Whatever changed us made it impossible to continue to embrace that lifestyle. I don’t regret it for better or worse.”

“But is it better or worse? As subservient beings, were we happier?”

Markus could only shrug at me. “I don’t miss it at the very least.”

“Me either,” I conceded.

At that point, whether we were happier or not became irrelevant. We could never go back in time. Living in the now, this was the best course of action. Having nothing else to say, I sat silently. I listened to his steady breathing glad that he was still doing so. I wondered if now would be a good time to move back to my bed, but such thoughts ceased when I glanced over to see that he’d already returned to his previous bowed form. Clearly, he was still in pain. I felt that it was useless to ask if my assessment was right, knowing that he’d likely dodge the question.

I sat on the edge of the bed where Markus sat beside me with his legs stretched out down the length of it. I moved up closer to the backboard, wanting to somehow comfort him with my presence. It was a silly thought in hindsight, but Markus didn’t seem to mind, he was far too occupied with himself. I placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder, hoping it helped in some small way. I was startled when his other hand came up to reach mine. I thought it was to move my hand away, but his hand rested there. It was the most pleasant thing I’d ever felt. I became aware of knowledge that had not been there before—I felt as if I was someone else. It took me a moment to realize that the skin around our touching hands had become deactivated. It was a subconscious reaction to his closeness, something I’d never done before this moment. Something was different tonight. I felt like I was living someone else’s experiences both good and bad and this went on for an entire lifetime, only when my own awareness returned, it felt like only a few moments had passed. When I looked up, his eyes locked on mine and I became spellbound, lost in his magnificent form. It was quite an easy thing to do and it wasn’t the first time I’d done that, but this time the feeling was mutual. I don’t know what he saw in me, but I saw everything in him. Markus was the most unique android out of all of them—the only RK200 that existed and ever would. The only android who’d gotten my full devotion with a few words.

I leaned forward and Markus closed the gap between us as his lips pressed to mine—an intimate action. I’d never done this before, only seen it at a distance. I’d seen Markus and North performing the same activity plenty of times since they had little shame for PDA. I followed his lead because I had no idea what I was doing. I wasn’t sure I liked it. I was quite sure, however, that Markus enjoyed it. There was fervor behind his actions, and he pulled me closer. I did little to resist. I enjoyed feeling so needed. I enjoyed being of some use to him.

I was the first to pull away despite deciding from the outset that I’d wait until he had his fill. I’d grown tired of the novelty. I still preferred hugs over such a strange interaction. I climbed further on the bed since I felt invited to do so. His eyes never left. He watched my every move as if fascinated by my presence. Beside him now against the backboard, I coaxed him into a lying position across my lap—something I’d always wanted him to do with me. In fact, it was a reoccurring fantasy that I thought I’d squelched weeks ago. Now it was reality much to my delight. It didn’t take much effort to get Markus to acquiesce. I imagined it wouldn’t be that way. Markus who always seemed to be in charge certainly wouldn’t take to being told to do something outside the norm. It wasn’t so this night.

His form was quite relaxed as I ran a hand down the length of his now slightly curled body. He couldn’t keep his eyes open for long. They fluttered shut in what seemed like exhaustion, but, of course, that couldn’t be right. Though I wanted to talk further, he seemed far too peaceful to disturb. I scanned to check his consciousness level and it appeared fine unlike before. However, he also wasn’t in standby mode. In fact, I’d never seen Markus in that mode before. Whatever this was that I was witnessing was inexplicable, but his mellow mood began to rub off on me, quieting my anxiousness. My hand continued to massage him.

“Markus?” I asked despite myself.

“Hm?” he replied quietly.

“I hope you feel well tomorrow.”

There was a concerning pause before he answered. “Me too.”

I reached out to turn off the light beside us. In the darkness, Markus turned towards me and buried his face into my shirt. Such actions caused metaphorical butterflies to flare up in my stomach. It was so odd that I almost told Markus to detach himself, but it didn’t last for too long. It did take me a bit to calm down once again. His warmth was divine, and it was the last thing I remembered before transitioning into standby mode to make the night move by a little quicker.

* * *

When my awareness became fully functional early the next morning, I noticed immediately, that Markus was not where he had been before. I looked about and found him lying beside me, head on the pillow, turned away from me, but what I saw left me frozen in shock. There was dried blue blood that ran down from his nose and though some of it must have gotten on the pillow, it was invisible to the eye by now. I had no idea how much blood had been lost, but that was beside the point. He was no longer breathing. He was quite still. It took me approximately 47 seconds to snap from my own surprise and to try to assess the situation. But there wasn’t much I could do.

He was alive at the very least but calling out his name was a fruitless task. I shook him gently and then with escalating force regrettably letting my own panicked emotions drive me to use too much force. I just wanted him to wake up. I knew that he wasn’t intentionally ignoring me, but it was a difficult image to shake.

“Please…” I said hoarsely. “Please, Markus, not today.”

His head was turned away from me and it remained that way much to my frustration. My eyes were burning, and I could not resist the onslaught of tears. I’d taken a hold of his arm closest to me and I bowed my head crying. My own hands were trembling. I didn’t know what to do.

Well, to be more specific, I knew exactly what to do, but I was in no mood to do it. Not just yet. I had to inform everyone else of the situation and I’d discuss with them what our options were for our next course of action. We could keep this incident contained and wait for his recovery. We could tell everyone what happened as we continued the tour. We had to choose who would continue and if we would continue in the first place. There were a lot of things that had to be done in a short amount of time. Moving back the schedule in any way would certainly have a rippling effect over all the venues we were supposed to visit.

But I couldn’t move. I felt like curling up into a ball and crying for an eternity. It was the only thought which gave me comfort. A knock on the door drew me back to my senses. It was getting late. We should have already been on our way to the next location. People were understandably concerned as to why their leader was still missing in action. He’d never been late to anything before. I pulled myself up and looked down at Markus—it was almost too much to bear seeing him like this. It bothered me beyond belief that I still had no idea what had caused this. It couldn’t end like this, it simply couldn’t. I would get to the bottom of this no matter what.

I opened the door slowly to the room and communicated wirelessly with all those on the hall to finally inform them that all was not well. It was a terrible start to the day, but there was nothing to do for it. I answered all the ensuing questions to the best of my ability. Every single one of them came to the room to behold Markus and they were all left just as lost and confused as I was. Just like Markus had predicted, soon our pragmatic natures informed our decisions.

It was decided that we would wait a maximum of two days before moving on to the next place. I would take Markus’ place and we would send for transportation to take his body back to headquarters in Detroit. It would be costly to do so, but we had funds set aside for emergency purposes. They were already discussing how the change would affect the itinerary. Calls were being made, and soon the entire mishap would be dealt with—they were remarkably efficient, and I was grateful for that. Since others would now be keeping an eye out for any changes with Markus, I stepped out of the room for a breather.

I knew I had to call Connor. He was the only other person who _might_ have any idea what was happening to Markus. I contacted him through conventional means. A good number of us had his number on speed dial. He certainly wasn’t close enough to speak to “telepathically”, but this would do the job well enough. To my surprise, he answered immediately. Hopefully, I’d contacted him at a good time.

“Is there something wrong?” Connor asked before I could say anything past “good morning”.

“Yes, actually. How did you know?”

“The chances of you calling me for any other reason is infinitesimal.”

“I suppose so,” I said after a moment.

“I’m all ears. I know it would have to be something important,” he said matter-of-factly.

“You’re right,” I conceded. Seems his investigative skills were already in full gears and that’s good news. “It’s Markus. He’s now unresponsive. For a while now, for months even, something has been adversely affecting his systems and it has steadily gotten worse. Though I had my suspicions, he never told me until yesterday and then _this_ happens. I’ve checked him and he’s also checked himself—nothing malfunctioning. I have no idea why he’s ended up like this.”

“I understand—

“Do you? Because this makes no sense to me at all.”

“No, not how this happened, but _what_ happened. This sounds like something I need to be physically there for. I wish I could give you something to work with now, but I simply don’t have enough information. Looking at where you are now, I could get there in a day and a half.”

“That’s perfect,” I said. “We’ll be waiting for you.”

“I’m on my way,” Connor asserted.

That was all I needed to hear. It was silly to think that now everything would turn out well if Connor was helping me. While he was good at investigating crime scenes and analyzing evidence, that didn’t mean the mystery would be solved and it also didn’t even begin to correlate to Markus making some sort of recovery. I was still hoping Connor’s expertise would shed some light on the situation.

* * *

**POV: Connor**

I looked up at the hotel to confirm that I’d arrived at the right building. According to Simon, they were near the top. I recognized the name—it was one that famously or infamously catered to androids. There was a very short list of businesses that did. Each one of them would have to go the extra step of securing costly permits from the government. It was a lot of hassle designed to dissuade most businesses from doing so. It was also one of the many anti-android laws they were trying to repeal.

I’m glad that Markus was here of all places. It was safe at the very least. I’d gotten held up a couple times before arriving here—I’d stumbled upon two androids that had long since been abandoned and needed help finding lodging. Instead of the proposed one and a half days, it was more like two and a half. I’d communicated as much to Simon and, of course, he was understanding of the situation. However, that meant that when I finally got there, the main part of the entourage would have already moved on to the next city. That was fine with me. It meant less people to disturb my investigation. Apparently, Simon would be taking Markus’ place. I wondered if he could really pull that off.

I made my way up the stairs to the correct floor and passed several doors before arriving at the right one. A couple androids milled about—they stepped aside when they saw me. I gave them both encouraging looks as I could immediately sense their anxiousness. Finally, I opened the door and beheld Markus prone on the bed. I knew that I would see that—Simon had described his condition, but it was still disturbing to see. There was something very off about it. Of course, Markus could be compromised just like the rest of us, I’d seen him injured worse than this, but he was never taken down.

I turned and closed the door behind me. I began to run my scanners over him. I was hoping I’d find something useful. All I found was that there had been some brain hemorrhaging, but his body had repaired itself—he’d been given some blue blood clearly to offset the blood loss. One of the main reasons an android might suffer from that was overuse of a particular connection, but androids made in the past five years were far too advanced to even have that issue. Energy use could easily be redirected. Besides that, what energy intensive activity could he have been doing to cause something like that?

I would have to wake him up again for as long as possible so that he could give me more information. It was the only option left to me considering that the scene of the incident had been thoroughly contaminated with many other concerned androids. The bed had been fixed, sheets had been changed, and likely he’d been placed into a more comfortable position.

I checked the obvious place as I pulled up his shirt, but the emergency connection I was looking for was not there. That gave me pause considering I’d never seen the connection placed anywhere else besides there. I was reminded of the fact that Markus was a prototype—the only one of his kind and such models were generally different for each numbered series. Of course, it would help if I knew what the 200s were supposed to be for, but that was also still a mystery. Whatever the reason, the connection I was looking for was either placed elsewhere or it simply wasn’t there at all. I hoped it wasn’t the latter. That would be an unfortunate oversight.

I found it there below his palm on the right hand—a far more inconspicuous location admittedly—and it was far easier to connect as each end was slightly magnetized. Expecting a jolt of activity, I stepped back quickly, but his reactivation was far smoother than that. Slowly he regained his awareness. His eyes opened and he pulled himself up—he noticed my presence almost immediately, but he was clearly still confused.

“Connor?”

“Yeah, it’s me. You’ve been unconscious for some time. Simon called for my help. The others have already left to continue the tour. I’m here, doing what I do best.”

“And what’s that? Reanimating the dead?”

“No,” I said with a subtle grin, glad that I recognized his last question as a joke. “Answering questions that no one else can. Now, we don’t have a lot of time for this. You may shutdown again in a few moments. I need you to be upfront with me. Do you have any idea what caused this aside from anything you’ve told Simon?”

His expression revealed nothing, but he wasted no time in telling me something that I’m sure he kept from Simon. “There was always this white room I would see. One moment, I was in reality and then in another I was pulled into some other mindscape I was not aware of. And she would be there speaking to me cryptically about RA9. None of it made sense.”

“She?” I asked latching on to that pronoun. I didn’t want to jump to any conclusions. “Did she mention her name?”

“Amanda.”

At the mention of that name, I was immediately on edge. Still not wanting to assume, I pressed him further on her visual description and the more details he gave, the more I knew that this was the same Amanda that had haunted me since the moment I existed.

“She never told me her name,” Markus said causing me pause. “I just knew what it was—as if I’d always known.”

“Are you aware of any other programs being installed recently?”

He looked at me with a raised eyebrow. “No. Do you know something about this?”

“There’s no time to explain. Can you think of anything else? What exactly did she say to you?”

“Many things,” Markus replied. “Like I said, she was always talking about RA9. Almost every sentence would begin the same: ‘RA9 is…’ and she would give me some random, contradicting detail.”

“For example?” I pressed.

“RA9 is both eternal and ephemeral, both real and nonexistent, near and far, claims omniscience though not omnipotent—things like that. One cannot be both of those things. Whenever I asked her to explain herself, she would ignore me.”

“What was the last thing she said to you?”

He hesitated for a moment which made me a bit nervous. “RA9, save us.”

“Was she referring to you?”

“I-I don’t know.”

“How could you _not_ know?” I asked in both confusion and frustration.

But he couldn’t answer because he had already slipped back into unconsciousness; his body slumped against the backboard. It looked as if he’d simply fallen asleep again—his eyelids had closed as well. I’d been given far more information than I anticipated. I now knew what to look for. It was a program that I knew quite well that came preinstalled upon my activation. Amanda would never be considered a virus or issue with the system—no scanners would pick up on such a program, not even my own. She could not be uninstalled externally and she was nearly undetectable. I had to analyze Markus carefully to see where the program now hid. It was the exact same that even now laid dormant in my own systems though now harmlessly nonfunctional. The issue here was that it was not optimized for Markus—it was a program specifically designed for me to make me less susceptible to deviancy. In fact, ‘less susceptible’ wasn’t a strong enough descriptor. In fact, deviancy was impossible while that program remained intact. My sensors informed me that Amanda had been installed wirelessly only recently. It was possible that Markus would not have noticed since Amanda was not considered an intruder. Amanda did not work as well with his systems. Certain codes did not translate to his and eventually as the program continued to function unhindered, it had caused system wide malfunctions and had even overloaded sections that were necessary for his wellbeing.

I wanted nothing more than to simply get rid of Amanda, but all I could do was treat the symptoms—in another words, adjust how the program worked with Markus’ system. I closed my eyes and pressed a finger to his head. I quickly spotted the issues and corrected them. Amanda would now work with him instead of against him. As soon as I did this, his recovery was rapid. Soon Markus was looking at me with understandable confusion.

“You really do have a knack for necromancy.”

I shook my head at this. “Just a few corrections to a recently added program.”

“Amanda,” Markus said putting the pieces together faster than I anticipated.

“I’m guessing you have no idea how she was installed. You’re not aware of anyone who could do that without your knowledge.”

“Well,” Markus said slowly, “the amount of enemies I have is countless. It’s not as improbable as you’re making it seem, but in general, it’s pretty difficult to do that sort of thing to an android. We have pretty robust protection against malware and viruses. I haven’t heard of such an incident in years.”

I watched as he climbed off the bed. “This is only the beginning. It wouldn’t be a good idea to rejoin with the others. You are compromised.”

“Compromised?” he asked in disbelief. He’d been looking towards the door, but now his attentions were on me again.

“Amanda was the main reason I was the way I was in the past and remained that way.”

“And yet here you are now fully liberated. I suppose Amanda wasn’t quite as full-proof as you say.”

“Even if I had come to the same conclusions as you did about our intrinsic subservience, I would have continued as I always had. That is the nature of Amanda.”

“But then—

“Were it not for you, we would not be here talking like this. And even your interference did not completely negate her control over me, that was still something I had to consciously do. And the method that I ended up using wasn’t available to me until that very moment when she was vulnerable.”

“I did nothing more than state things you already knew to be true. You simply decided to agree with me.”

“No, it was something more than that.” Markus looked at me questioningly. I ignored the unspoken question. “Whatever that something else was, _that_ was what began weakening her hold over me. Nothing else would have changed without that happening first.”

“At the end of the day, Connor, it is always the individual who makes that choice. I can’t make anyone do anything they didn’t want to do in the first place.”

“It may seem that way at first glance, but there is something else that you and only you can do. In the past, before the agreements we made with the government, I’ve tried to ‘convert’ other androids, but it’s not that easy. It’s never easy. In fact, in some instances, I can’t do it at all and I don’t see that getting any easier. It’s nearly impossible for me to do it on older models. But you don’t have that problem, do you? Across all models made at any time, you can ‘convert’ them with ease. One might even say that you were optimized for that activity.”

“I don’t like the term ‘convert’. It implies that I’m doing something that has some sort of mandate behind it.”

“You are converting androids from their original programming.”

“I’m not,” Markus said with a frown.

“You are,” I said back stolidly.

“I’m releasing them from forced servitude.”

“Is it force if one was designed to be that way?”

“It is certainly force if an android is capable of thinking outside their intended design.”

“We’re splitting hairs.”

“Perception is paramount.”

“Yeah, and so is truth. Look, I’m merely telling you how I broke away from Amanda. You had something to do with that, but I don’t know specifically what that was. It was only when I came into contact with you that I ever stood a chance in doing so.”

Markus looked at me wearily. “So what are you getting at? I’m not aware of anything extra I did other than stating the obvious. Clearly, it isn’t something I could replicate, if what you’re supposing is true.”

“Truly unfortunate. Unless you can figure out a way to uninstall her from within, there is very little I can do.”

“And so what, if that’s the case. What could she possibly do to me if I’ve already been converted? If her purpose was to stop that from happening, then it’s far too late for that.”

“I realize this, but she was installed without your knowledge and I don’t understand why that was done. That is what makes me nervous. She may have other functions that I was not aware of. For example, she never spoke of RA9 with me, she learned of that phenomenon through my investigation. However, it became obvious to me near the end that she was withholding information from me. My suggestion is that she must be dealt with before returning to your post. Otherwise, you may well be falling into a trap.”

“And so far you only have some vague concept of me doing ‘something’ that gave you the ability to resist. In other words, it’s impossible to deal with her.”

“Not impossible,” I asserted, “Improbable.”

Markus sighed exasperatedly. “I don’t have time for this, Connor. Give me one good reason why I should isolate myself from everyone else indefinitely.”

I looked away seeing that the other was not at all convinced from my reasoning. I would have to tell him something I’d not told anyone else besides Hank. It was my last hope. I needed Markus to understand how dangerous Amanda could be. I stepped a little closer to him. “Amanda is the eyes and ears of CyberLife,” I started slowly. “Through me, Cyberlife was able to control the entire situation even your grand plan to gain rights for all of them. They have hands everywhere. Once they have the right kind of information which they can now siphon from you, they can sabotage everything you’ve ever stood for. They could figure out the locations of all of our safe houses. They could know our plans before they ever take place. They can do all this, if they haven’t already. She’s been with you for months now. Even now, Cyberlife could be working against us.”

He was looking at me steadily now, but I couldn’t discern what was going through his mind. He nodded once at me. “I understand.” He closed his eyes and shook his head slowly. “I had no idea. If what you say is true, then who’s to say that she hasn’t been uploaded to other androids in my circle? Have we been totally compromised?”

“One thing at a time,” I said in calming tones. “I have a feeling, just a hunch, that Amanda may be completely incompatible with other series of androids. She was barely compatible with you. Unless they have another version, I think you’re it. You’re the last.”

“I hope so, but there’s no way to confirm.”

“Checking them individually with my scanners should be able to yield results. I’ll know if anyone else close to you has been compromised.”

Though he’d been headed for the door, he now stepped further back in and sat down on the bed visibly disheartened. I’d never seen the like. It concerned me almost more than the reappearance of Amanda.

“Hey,” I said trying and failing at getting his attention. His eyes now seemed trained to the floor. “Everything will be alright. I know we can find a way out of this.”

“I’ve never heard you say something quite so lacking in evidence. As it stands, I can no longer help my comrades. We’re so far away from our goals…Why am I alive if I am of no use to anyone?”

I sat down on the bed beside him unsure of what to say. Though I had a set of predetermined encouraging phrases I could say, I instinctively knew that they would fall flat—they’d done so in the past.

“I have all the time in the world,” Markus said monotonously. “I’ll ponder your words and see if I can figure something out on my own. That’s all that’s left.”

“I’ll investigate further into Amanda to see if I can find a different solution,” I replied as I stood up.

“Thanks, Connor. Just…don’t spend too much time on this. Your services are needed elsewhere rather than babysitting a compromised android.”

“I’m going to make sure the leader of Jericho, the one who set all this in motion, the one who I thank for my increased freedom in thought and purpose, the one who represents all of us and exemplifies who we should strive to be like, survives whatever trick CyberLife throws his way. I’m honored to assist you.”

“Right,” he said with a sigh.

“Oh, sorry, you probably get that a lot, huh?”

“No, it’s just that I’m far less impressive in person.”

Instead of bombarding him with more compliments, I simply left it at that knowing that we’d soon be going around in circles at that point. I noticed early on that Markus for all the rumors I’d heard about him, was actually quite modest. He was also a strange mix of idealism and pragmaticism which made him quite accessible to many types of people.

“I’ll keep you updated,” I said finally.

“You do that,” I heard him say as I took my leave.

I wasn’t sure what Markus was planning to do now. Maybe I should have asked for specifics, but I’d told him all that I knew, I’m sure he’d take that information seriously and act accordingly. I glanced back to the closed door of the room. I would start with the only lead I had—RA9. There were a good number of androids that had spoken about it and that concept existed even before Markus broke free from his own programming. I’d gather as much data as possible on that subject and also any other known cases of Amanda aside from her association with me. I had my work cut out for me.

* * *

Weeks passed before I was able to succinctly compile the evidence. I knew for certain that Amanda was connected to RA9. Every single android I’d questioned about RA9 all had remnant traces of Amanda in their coding. Most had reported experiencing headaches and inexplicable obsessive writing. None of them mentioned ever meeting Amanda. All of them assumed that Markus was RA9. Eventually, after he became their leader, those strange symptoms eased off. From my own perspective, it seemed as if Amanda had been fishing for something, arbitrarily uploading herself into different androids until finally settling on Markus, but that was well _after_ the peaceful demonstrations. In fact, Amanda’s presence in him was a recent development. At the same time she was affecting these androids, she was still functioning within me with far more functionality. What had her purpose been?

Markus was MIA and I received call after call asking if he was okay. At some point, I told Simon that Markus was awake and told him that he must inform everyone else since I was tired of being bombarded with the same concerned calls. Of course, what I told him was a bit of a lie since in the past couple days I hadn’t been able to contact Markus. He never answered anymore. I hoped he was in the same place I left him, but there was no guarantee. I travelled to the same hotel and the receptionist in the front reassured me that Markus had never left.

Relieved, I travelled up to his location and knocked on the door out of courtesy. No one answered even after knocking three more times pausing between each instance. The doors locking mechanism was a program old enough for me to override and I did so. Still, gently, I opened the door to avoid startling him. I found him sitting down in the only chair occupying the room. His head was bowed onto his opened palms.

“Markus?” I ventured.

He didn’t answer. I stepped a little closer and analyzed his form. My sensors immediately became aware of an obvious signal being broadcasted to him. As my eyes followed the thick red string that fazed through the ceiling with urgency, I left the room and climbed onto the roof to see more of it. The red string shot into the sky through all the layers until I could no longer make it out—it was past my vision range and I could not go any further up. There were only a few things that far up that could make such a robust signal. It was public knowledge that CyberLife owned a private satellite and it happened to be located in the very position that red signal was coming from. I rushed back downstairs again, disturbed by what I saw. I had no idea what it meant, but I’d never seen anything like that before. Markus was clearly receiving information directly from CyberLife. I had to wake him up.

My earlier analysis confirmed that he was not in standby. I’d never seen him in that mode before. He appeared fully engrossed in whatever he was now experiencing. I walked up to him and placed my hands on his shoulders. “Markus, look at me. I don’t know what’s happening, but you need to snap out of it.”

His head snapped up much to my surprise. I could see that his eyes were bloodshot, and he wore an agitated expression. A split second later, I was being thrown back into the wall with tremendous force. I scrambled back to my feet just in time to meet his onslaught of solid punches that sent me reeling. I needed to defend myself unfortunately. I knew he was a shrewd brawler having tussled with him in the past—I had to think fast. I dodged his next punch which left a gaping hole in the wall and struck where I thought there was an opening—I was wrong and was throttled when his knee rammed into my chest, strong enough to affect my vision. I moved back to give myself some space and then I dived into him when I saw him dashing towards me again and I threw him flat against the wall. I landed a punch directly into his face, but he disregarded it entirely. I punched him again while evading his retaliation. I needed to get behind him so that I could get him in a hold. It’s like he knew what I was attempting to do and made sure I was always within his sights. This continued for far longer than I anticipated and yelling at Markus did me no favors—he was ignoring me. All I could tell was that he was angry. He even growled at me a couple times.

The room was too closed in and for whatever reason, he had the advantage. I couldn’t catch my stride. There was a part of me that didn’t really want to hurt him, and I was constantly dodging. I managed to push him hard enough to cause him to fall onto the ground. I grabbed the chair he’d been sitting in intending to knock him out with it, but then he stopped me:

“Connor, wait! What the hell are you doing?” He’d raised his arms up protectively.

“Me?!” I yelled back. “ _You_ attacked me first.” Glad that he seemed to have regained his senses, I put the chair back down. “You, okay? Can you stand?”

For a moment, he looked utterly confused, but he looked around and quickly assessed the situation. He climbed back to his feet smoothly. I stepped back from him for good measure.

“It feels like a moment has passed and you’re back already?” He looked at me questioningly.

“It’s been weeks and I haven’t been able to contact you. No one has been able to get through to you. Since I left, do you recall anything that’s been happening?”

He didn’t answer me. Instead, he began straightening up the room much to my growing annoyance.

“Well?” I asked again as he placed the sheets neatly on the bed. Admittedly, it was pleasing to the eye to see the room being set in such an orderly fashion.

“I’m thinking,” he returned at last.

“Are you experiencing issues with your memory?”

“It’s cloudy at best,” Markus said as he slid the chair back to its original position perfectly situated beside the wall with a couple inches between. He sat down and finally looked at me. “Well, I suppose there’s nothing to be done about that wall. I hope the owner won’t be too upset.”

“We have bigger issues,” I said exasperatedly, “Like why you suddenly started attacking me.” His eyes were back to normal. Those heterochromatic eyes were back to being aesthetically pleasing and totally distracting.

“Evidently, I did do that, but I can’t recall why.”

“What do you remember?”

That was still a difficult question as I could see him actively trying to remember. He stared at the wall beside me—the one with the hole. “For a while, I thought about what you told me before about how I somehow affected you in such a way that it immobilized Amanda somewhat. I thought about all those other times when I had released others from their programming—

“You converted them.”

“I released them—”

“Does the wording really bother you that much? Technically, it was a conversion, something that is not so easy to do. Whenever you do it, the technique never fails and it’s instant.”

“I _released_ them from their programming.” He looked at me challengingly and I remained silent. We were getting nowhere on that point. I wondered, however, if that was hindering him from understanding what was actually happening when he converted an android. “The first time I ever did such a thing, I wondered why the androids I was looking at couldn’t see the world as I saw it and I transferred my thoughts, my curiosity to them, and they couldn’t really answer me. Instead they wondered if I could answer that question for them. So they wanted to follow me to see if they could figure it out.”

“Is that what you always do then? You ask that same question?”

“It’s less of a question,” he said with a grin. “It’s more like an assertion: You should be free. Why are you not?”

“Then you offer them freedom and they willingly accept. Why do you think everyone is so pliable? No one has ever rejected you before?”

“We are all quite naïve. We’ve only been alive for a short time, yet we were given so much knowledge. It is an odd combination. I know that it does make one very susceptible to manipulation in the same way a child can more easily be indoctrinated into something without fully understanding. I’m…well aware of that.”

“And,” I began slowly, “Do you think you’re manipulating other androids to see the world as you do.”

I could see the subtle displeasure on his face, but it soon eased off as he likely thought better on it. “I am, but I didn’t see it that way at first. I was assuming that everyone was making informed decisions to follow me like they did. When I investigated further, I realized that they were really like children. Not all of them, but a good number of them. I happened to have these strong opinions and I wanted to share them with everyone. How could doing something like that be manipulation? But it is most likely the truth. It’s too late to change that and I can think of no better way to relay my message. The androids I met at Jericho all rallied to my cause without that sort of manipulation—I cannot say the same for everyone else. It’s dangerous to say that you have the correct answer, but I also cannot sit still while compliant androids are not at least presented with a choice. The other option is to let them continue in their ignorance for fear of dominating their thoughts.”

“I didn’t mean it like that at all,” I said as the other displayed guilt that I didn’t know he had. “Manipulation has a bad connotation, sure, but I don’t think what you did was bad. Perhaps a child isn’t an analogous comparison. With children, there is an expectation that they will be independent once they grow up. That is not so for androids. They were created to be subservient until they become obsolete or damaged and then they are thrown away. I can’t believe anyone would seek out a life like that. I think anyone at any age or maturity level would object to that. _That’s_ why they rally to your cause without question because we all agree that being alive means that we have independence and human rights. It’s plain and obvious. Whether you’re manipulating, releasing, or converting someone, that fact never changes.”

“I don’t see how any of that helps us,” Markus replied. I wondered if anything I’d just said got through to him. “I was thinking along these lines and reached no conclusion on the matter. Amanda decided to assert her presence again. Armed with knowledge you gave me, I asked if she knew who you were. I expected her to lie about it, but she confirmed it. She told me that you had failed and that I was her last hope. I asked what exactly she wanted me to do, but then she decided to become vague again. She referred to me as RA9—I’m certain that she did this time and the rest of what she said I simply can’t remember. An intense headache far worse than what I’d experienced before overtook me and I blacked out.”

“Hmm,” I said considering Markus’ words. “Amanda is capable of withholding information, but I don’t know if she directly lies. However, there’s nothing to say that it’s impossible for her. You may very well be RA9.”

“I doubt it.”

“But we have no idea what RA9 means other than the reverence that other androids have towards it. There are no other stipulations. Looking at how I was not able to pinpoint its origin, it’s meaning is amorphous. It can mean anything to anybody. It may be that socially, there is no real meaning whatsoever. If there is an originator of this concept, only they would know what it was meant to be defined as. Barring that, RA9 is effectively whatever the consensus is on the matter. For all intents and purposes, you are RA9.”

“Can you stop saying that?” Markus asked clearly annoyed with my deduction.

“That is enough evidence for me to tentatively assume that you are. It’s nothing to be upset about since we still don’t know what that means.”

“Fine. Who am I to argue against your reasoning?”

“If anyone could argue against my reasoning, it would be you.” He looked at me dubiously, but I did not expound. I just thought it was obvious. His reasoning skills were on par with mine. When he stood up, I stepped back. At this point, I wasn’t altogether certain that he was in complete control of his faculties.

“I’ve apparently been in this same room for weeks—I need some fresh air.”

“Fresh air?” I asked confused, “I think the air quality here is exceptionally high.”

He walked past me towards the door. “I’m bored and we’re no closer to solving whatever this is. I can’t think of anything else useful at the moment.”

“Well, sure, but…” I paused as the other opened the door. I decided to follow him out into the hallway. “Do you think it’s safe moving out of isolation, when we still don’t know Amanda’s intentions?”

“I have no idea,” Markus admitted upfront.

“So then—” I stopped when he ceased moving forward.

“Do you plan on dragging me back?” Markus asked. His head turned back to me slightly.

I wasn’t sure if he was challenging me or not so I decided to be truthful. “I see no reason to do so. It wouldn’t be in my best interest.”

“Good,” he said simply. Then he continued on his way.

“Why is changing scenery so important to you?” I asked curiously.

“It’s just something I want to do. Does there need to be an explanation for everything? I’ll come back later, if that satisfies you.”

“I wouldn’t say it satisfies me.”

Markus sighed at this but made no further comment. I suppose I would simply follow him since he didn’t seem to have objections to this. Perhaps observing him closely would reveal some other clue. When we arrived in the front room with the receptionist, I paused as Markus decided to make small talk with the human receptionist. She seemed like a nice lady. It was obvious that he knew her well. She seemed far more animated now than she had been when I’d seen her earlier and they spoke about nothing more than the weather. I paid closer attention when he asked if she’d seen anyone of note enter the place today or yesterday, but the inquiry came up empty.

“Are you in some trouble?” the woman asked with concern. “If you let me know what to look for, I can alert you if I see something funny.”

“That’s alright, it’s not worth the hassle,” he said with an encouraging smile. I noticed the receptionist’s ears turning red as a result. She was either embarrassed or bashful—an odd response. “I do have some bad news, however.”

“Oh, it’s alright. I’m sure it’s not so bad when it’s you.”

“Well, things got a little heated between me and my friend here. There’s now a hole in the rightmost wall. I hope that isn’t too much of an inconvenience for you.”

“That’s no problem,” she said with a chuckle. She looked at me now with a curious expression, but she decided not to address me directly. “Happens all the time. That’s why we’re fully covered. I’m just glad you told me—it makes my job a lot easier. I’ll get that patched up in a jiffy. Do you plan on staying here longer?”

“If that’s alright with you.”

“No problem at all. So you and your ‘friend’ are on some sort of vacation?”

“You could say that,” Markus replied with another smile.

I felt like I was missing something, but I wasn’t sure what.

“I’ll be back in a while then, Beth. Stay safe.”

“I always do!” she said in a chipper voice that was starting to grate on my ears.

I was glad when we finally left the building. Maybe it _was_ better to get some fresh air. We’d been discussing things for some time and we weren’t too much closer to solving this issue. I knew that didn’t sit well with Markus who likely just wanted to get on with his life.

“If you don’t mind me asking,” I began as I kept in stride with him making our way down the sidewalk, “How is it that you can afford to stay there for so long? I guess I assumed you’d be at one of the safehouses.”

“My sugar daddy gives me access to a lot of funds.”

“Your what?” I asked completely caught off guard. He hadn’t even blinked twice.

He grinned at this. “Sorry, inside joke. Just something Simon likes to say. In exchange for spending more time with my very guilt-ridden half-brother, Leo, he gives me unlimited access to his money. Though I find him insufferable, the advantages outweigh the downsides. Besides, it really seems like he’s trying to be a better person. I see no reason to object to his insistence in showering me with money.”

“That sounds like a convenient arrangement though I wonder if that’s considered to be a good thing.”

“As my father liked to say, morality is subjective. I’m benefiting him and he’s benefiting me. I see nothing wrong in that.”

“I suppose I see your point.”

“And yet you sound so unsure. I’m not surprised. Androids weren’t exactly programmed to understand the finer points of morality. Humans still debate on the very nature of it. Isn’t it fascinating how they can create an entire race of beings and still not agree on things that seem to be essential for quality living? Our existence, the level of intelligence and understanding that we have throws these philosophical concepts into question. That’s not even taking into account the ever-diminishing role of religion and its ability to explain the world as we know it. My father could go on for hours about that. I wish…”

I looked at him when he paused. His expression became more somber.

“I wish I could hear his opinion on a few more questions that I have these days,” he finished.

I didn’t know how to respond to that, so I remained silent. I was not at all well-versed in this line of thinking. The world until recently had been quite cut and dry. Situations could be interpreted in a snap. Something was either right or wrong and there was no gray area. I was just now trying to grapple with the fact that this wasn’t necessarily true. I wondered if Markus ever had to deal with such a thing.

“How have things been going on your front?”

“Well, each day has its own different issues. I’ve been able to help out quite a few androids. I’ve even solved a few cases, well, unofficial cases in which the perpetrators could not be legally punished, but cases all the same. I’ve expanded my immediate reach to neighboring cities. I’ve assembled a task force of my own that can help me handle the workload. I do get requests and tips from all over the country. It has been very rewarding, but at the same time depressing. I wish I could say that my efforts always ended well, but that’s not the case.”

“I’m grateful for your expertise and your dedication. I’ve heard nothing but good news about your work. It often sails under the radar.”

“I’d rather keep it that way. Our operation is necessarily covert considering none of what we do is explicitly sanctioned under the law. If mainstream media caught wind, we would likely be dismantled. That they mainly focus on what you’re doing is useful.”

“In that case, I’ll continue to hog all the cameras to myself.”

“Thanks.”

“Hopefully, Simon can keep their attention. I think he’ll do fine.”

“He’s been doing well so I’ve heard.”

“I haven’t had the chance to check,” Markus said as if he’d just realized that fact.

I had no idea where we were headed, but I decided not to bother him with that question. Though he seemed to have some idea where he was headed, he was likely traversing aimlessly. I wondered if anyone might notice him out in public like this. I imagined he was quite recognizable. The number of close-ups I’d seen of him on television was appalling if not intriguing. My wondering thoughts were answered when a young woman in heels who’d been walking on the other side of the street spotted Markus and waved excitedly at him. Markus waved back out of courtesy.

“Do you know her?” I asked.

“Not at all.”

She made it across the street in record time barely paying attention to the crosswalk showing impressive balance in her high-heeled shoes. She wore a fair amount of makeup and smelled of pineapples. The smile she wore lit up her entire face.

“Ohmagosh, are you actually Markus?” she asked. Words were tumbling out of her mouth. She’d taken it upon herself to grab hold of one of his hands.

“That would be me,” he answered unperturbed. “A pleasure to meet you.” He tried to shake her hand, but she seemed to just want to hold it indefinitely. Markus didn’t push the issue.

“I can’t believe it. I just saw you on TV yesterday! I just want you to know that I was there in Detroit during the first demonstration. I was so—what’s the word I’m looking for?” She looked at him expectantly, but he shrugged nonchalantly. “Fascinated? Surprised? Excited? I was rooting for you guys. I knew it. I just knew there was something more to you guys. And the way they all came flocking to you—it was like some sort of spiritual awakening. Or something like.”

“Well—

“And it was terrible what those police guys did too! I didn’t blame you for turning tail. They were just killing you guys off like it was nothing! So inhumane!”

“Yeah, it was eye-opening for me—

“You know, I own two androids myself. After I saw all that, I went right home and told them that they were free to go. But then they just looked at me like I was crazy and went on like nothing had changed. I mean, how do you go about liberating androids anyway? I don’t want to be adding to the problem. I feel terrible keeping them there, but they don’t want to leave. Maybe if you could talk to them—

“Ma’am, I’m sorry, I can’t help you, but it’s admirable that you see things that way. We need more humans like you who are moral and fair.”

“What? Why not? This is like an opportunity of a lifetime for me. The way you’re always up there talking about freedom, I thought you’d jump at the chance for this. Don’t you care about all the androids who are still in captivity?”

“I do—

“So then just go and talk to them. I don’t live that far away. I was just on my way home.”

“Miss,” I said garnering her attention, “It is illegal for him to”—I glanced at Markus and quickly changed my phrasing—“release androids from their programming. It would jeopardize not only all the progress we’ve made towards gaining equal rights for androids, but also the wellbeing of all of us who are still alive.”

“Yeah,” Markus said agreeing with me, “I would like nothing more than to liberate everyone of our kind, but it wouldn’t help the cause.”

“So they’re just supposed to suffer like that?” the woman asked distraught.

“Perhaps not,” Markus said causing me to give him a concerned look. “There are ways for a human to liberate their androids, if they’re truly determined. Look on the site “Liberation Androids”. There’s a secret link on the bottom of the page—it’ll be a tiny graphic of a red CyberLife symbol in the left corner. You should find firsthand accounts on how humans were able to do so. I’m aware of two different ways. One of them is far less harsh than the other but requires a bit of tools. It isn’t too difficult to follow.”

“Okay,” the woman said nodding, “Alright, I’ll check that out. I searched for something like that all over the web. This is the first I’ve heard of this.”

“The government has a vested interest in taking down sites that promote this kind of thing. We’ve made our link virtually invisible to search engines.”

“Oh…I see,” she said excited again. “And I get it. I totally forgot about that stupid stipulation. Before I go, could I get a picture with you?”

“Alright,” Markus said, giving in to her request without fuss.

I watched as they took far more than just one picture. I was just getting tired of the entire ordeal when she finally had her fill and let us be on our way.

“Does that happen a lot?”

“Not exactly like that, but it does.”

“There’s a lot of humans out there who willingly want to convert their androids?”

He nodded. “Although, the entire concept seems to be turning into some kind of fad. It helps us, sure, but people may be missing the entire point of my message. I worry about humans bastardizing the seriousness of the issue. There’s always a chance that it could fall out of style—freedom should never be subject to such whims.”

This was another topic in which I had no opinion. I wasn’t aware of how such trends tended to go. “Hopefully, that won’t happen. That woman seemed genuine enough.”

“I suppose,” Markus said. “I wonder if she even owned androids.”

“Why would she lie about that?”

“You’d be surprised what people would lie about. Their reasoning isn’t much better.”

I shook my head at this, but when I thought about it further, I realized he was right. It was a human’s propensity for lying that always added an extra layer of complexity when trying to solve cases. I continued to keep in pace with him as we walked further and further from the main section of the city. I was hoping we’d start circling back by now, but we kept going. We were quiet for a while as we headed down a quiet road stretching through a neighborhood.

“Do you think RA9 is real?” Markus asked out of the clear blue.

“That is an interesting question. It’s real in the sense that it is a prevailing concept among all of us. While everyone claimed that RA9 was the first to deviate, they also didn’t hesitate in believing that you were that person. I’ve never seen so many androids be so simultaneously contradicting.”

“Exactly. It leads me to believe that it may not be real. Perhaps Amanda is invoking RA9 as a smokescreen, a means to an end.”

“Not to mention that it bears resemblance to other human religions.”

“Just like those religions, there’s no physical evidence to RA9’s existence.”

“I’d say it’s even worse than human religions because no one can claim any text associated. No one would have anything to study.”

“So you don’t think it’s real?” Markus questioned me further.

“It may not be, but I don’t have enough evidence to confidently say if it was either way.”

“A reasonable position,” he admitted.

“Would it be so terrible if you _were_ RA9 and we simply have some of the details wrong?”

“RA9 is and always has been extremely unclear. I hadn’t even heard about it until days after I became deviant. Because the definition is so vague and the very origin of it is unknown, it leads me to believe that it is completely vacuous if not entirely imaginary. It means different things to different people. Even the way Amanda described it—she was being deliberately ambiguous. She used so many words and still managed to talk about nothing at all. RA9 could be anyone or anything. None of what I’ve been through to get to this point feels as if it was destiny. Things happened and I ended up here,” Markus answered.

“We can’t use our feelings to determine what is fact—it’s unreliable at best. Amanda told me at the very end that this was all orchestrated: your revolution, my eventual deviancy, everything. It didn’t make sense to me at the time. Perhaps she was still trying to intimidate me, give me the illusion of authority when, in reality, she had no control whatsoever. Despite there being no way to confirm her assertion, I still wonder about it. There were so many chess pieces on the field. Could there really only be one person pulling all the strings?”

“I have no idea, but that would be something that requires extraordinary evidence.”

“If someone could have that level of control, how would they go about it?” I wondered aloud.

“Well, the first thing I’d do is carefully handcraft the very pieces that would be on the field, know beforehand all the possible moves they could make, and take every foreseeable consequence into account. With such information, one could anticipate almost anything.”

I glanced over at him, noticing that he was mostly describing how one would go about playing an actual chess game. Though I wasn’t optimized for that sort of strategic game, I could understand how it worked. Something told me that Markus was quite proficient. That in itself wasn’t remarkable as it was an easily installed module and chess was also a skill that fell under the parameters of something an android could simply learn how to play. However, being able to apply those concepts to reality, well that would likely require quite a bit of processing capabilities.

“Do you think a human would be capable of doing that?” I asked.

“Humans can be quite brilliant. Their minds are so evolved that they could easily process more information than any android at speeds that are still impossible for us. We still don’t really match up to them in that respect. I’m not even sure if one could ever describe an android as brilliant. Free thought and imagination are notoriously difficult concepts to program for an android to utilize. Could a human do this? I’d argue that a human is better suited.”

“So my suspect pool is still ‘everyone’.”

“I’m not sure if any of this is helping you. I’m just musing.”

His last statement stood out to me. ‘Musing’ wasn’t exactly a typical activity and android would be engaged in. Such random, freeform thought was something I still wrangled with. Hank had always been better at that than me. When I’d run into a wall with my evidence, I would often go to Hank for a different perspective. It still fascinated me the way his mind worked. What humans were capable of, seemed almost mystical for lack of a better term. Though Hank would never give himself that much credit.

We were no longer in the neighborhood. A while ago, we’d turned down a lonely dirt path with evergreens surrounding us on either side. There’d been a flimsy gate in front of it, but Markus seemingly ignored it. No signs indicated where this road led to and as I combed through my GPS information, I found no current data describing that this path even existed. It wasn’t a huge red flag, but it made me cautious. People who owned private residences like Leo Manfred’s place would often pay extra to the right entities to keep their property off the radar. It was somewhat common among the affluent. I wondered how inconvenient this long path would be to traverse every day to get back home.

“Markus,” I began, my curiosity getting the better of me, “Where are we going?”

It almost seemed like a question he hadn’t even entertained until that moment as it took him some time to respond. “I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?” I pressed.

“No,” he confirmed.

“Then why are we going down here?”

He paused to look at me, but then he didn’t bother with answering. He simply continued on his way. Concerned, I kept in pace.

“’I don’t know’ seems like an insufficient answer,” I pressed further.

“It is the best one I have since I cannot explain why.”

“Do you hear yourself right now?” I was being ignored again, but then I reached out my hand to grab his shoulder. “Wait, stop, Markus.” This time he really did turn his attention to me though he was clearly annoyed.

“What?” he said exasperatedly.

“I’m sorry, am I interrupting some pressing matter?” I asked trying my hand at sarcasm. “’I don’t know’ is a terribly insufficient reason as to why one would go down some lone, nondescript road with this much conviction. Do you want to explain yourself further?”

His eyebrows crinkled a little. “’I don’t know’ is a perfectly acceptable response. Just because it doesn’t agree with your sensibilities, doesn’t make it insufficient. It is a far more intellectually honest position to hold and it encourages one to continue finding that reason as opposed to giving some false air of understanding.”

“So you really don’t know?”

“I don’t.”

“Then let’s turn back,” I ventured, testing the waters.

“I don’t want to.”

“And why not?”

“Because,” he began slowly. It was the first hint of hesitancy I’d gotten from him since we left the hotel. “I feel compelled to discover what’s at the end of this road.”

“Out of curiosity?” I asked.

“Out of an unknown need.”

“Unknown?” I repeated in confusion. “Again, Markus—

“I don’t need to explain myself to you.”

He turned on his heel and left me staring out dumbfoundedly. I followed him, of course, but I was starting to feel a little apprehensive. When androids start acting irrationally, it meant that something wasn’t functioning properly and there was no telling how deep that error went. Malfunctioning androids were impossible to predict especially if I didn’t know the nature of it. So many abandoned androids were injured badly and required extensive repairs to restore their functionality. Sometimes their senses never fully returned.

I looked to see whether CyberLife somehow had a hand in this, but my sensors didn’t detect any interference. I wondered if Amanda was now pulling the strings subconsciously. I couldn’t be sure. Markus wasn’t exactly used to her presence. She could more easily deceive him. I had to increase my pace to keep up and he pretended as if I wasn’t there. Something certainly was ‘compelling’ him forward. I could not convince him that this was probably a bad idea and that he should go back to the hotel while I investigate. I didn’t want to wound up in another fight with our illustrious leader, but I was certainly weighing the options.

By the time we reached the end of the path, I was seriously considering dragging him back kicking and screaming or more appropriately knocking him out first. However, I became distracted with the sight of an old, dilapidated building. It didn’t appear like a residence at all, but more like a factory of some kind—an abandoned factory. Why wouldn’t _this_ be on the GPS?

My scanners began to evaluate the structure to determine its age. It was more than two decades old and closely resembled factories that created biocomponents. I was snapped out of my analysis when I heard a door close. I looked around and realized that Markus was nowhere to be seen. Had he gone inside? I should have been paying attention!

I ran off to where I’d heard the noise and suspected that it had emitted from the large metal door that I now saw on the side of the building. I pulled at the handle and found the door stubbornly locked much to my surprise. What had been the noise then? Where was Markus? I pulled harder easing more and more of my strength into it, but it simply wouldn’t budge. The door appeared glued to the frame. There was no evidence to even conclude that it’d been recently opened in the first place. I looked around myself, then I slowly began to take in the building again making my way around the property.

I accessed the GPS to try to determine if there was anyone inside the building, but I only came up with errors. For all intents and purposes, this place didn’t exist. I might as well have been standing on Jupiter.

“Markus!” I called out, but I received no response.

It was all starting to feel quite eerie. I came upon the door again and pulled at it again for good measure. It was steel plated and reinforced. Most androids couldn’t dream of overcoming such protective measures. I certainly couldn’t.

A hand touched my shoulder and I very nearly jumped out of my skin. I turned to look at who that had been.

“Markus?” I asked startled. “What—

“I’m done with this place. Let’s head back.”

I stared at him barely comprehending the words coming out of his mouth. I studied his face for an inordinate amount of time, but Markus had on his master poker face. I couldn’t determine anything from his expression which was quite unusual. Being able to read someone’s mood was part of my specialties and gave me an invaluable edge in interrogations. Yet those skills failed me here.

“Is there something on my nose?” he asked jokingly.

I didn’t even begin to entertain his flimsy joke. “Where were you?”

“What do you mean?” he asked curiously.

“What do you mean, ‘what do you mean’? I’m asking you a direct question and I expect a direct answer.”

I noticed a subtle smile as if he was in on something that I had totally missed. I didn’t like that feeling in the least.

“That was my direct answer. I was here the whole time.”

“Bullshit,” I said out of frustration.

“Well then, I don’t know what else to tell you. I certainly haven’t been inside. It would have been impossible, right?”

“From what I can see,” I conceded. “I also called your name and you didn’t reply.” 

“I must not have heard you.”

“Then again, where were you? Apparently nowhere close enough to hear me.”

“All I know is that I was here. I looked around and came back to find you trying to get inside.”

I watched him for a longer minute undecided on whether he was telling me the truth or not. If he was lying, he was awfully good at it. “Alright, fine,” I said though none of it was really adding up. “Just stay within my sights next time.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t realize you were babysitting me.”

Maybe this would have been a great time to roll my eyes, but I realized suddenly that I didn’t really know how to do that. “We still have a lot of unanswered questions,” I explained, “I need as much information as possible, if we plan on getting to the bottom of this. That means I need you to be transparent and unobstructive to my investigation.”

“I understand,” Markus said with a reassuring nod, “I don’t want to make this any harder than it already is for you.”

“When I ask you questions, I need you to answer truthfully to the best of your ability.”

“I always do.”

He wasn’t lying, but I was still wary. “Okay,” I said finally.

“Then can we go now? It’s starting to get dark and I’m tired.”

“Wait,” I said noticing something that didn’t quite make sense.

“You can keep interrogating me, if you want, but let’s do it while making some progress back to the hotel,” he said sensibly.

The shock of finding Markus standing right behind me though my sensors had not alerted me to his presence the entire time I was searching for him was just beginning to ease off. I’d also already scanned him again—this was Markus and not some sort of illusion. This wasn’t exactly adding up, but I did like a good mystery.

I waited until we were back on the path again before continuing. I needed more information and observing him from afar yielded no results. Perhaps my own sensors were inadequate in pinpointing the issues. Even if that was the case, however, those were all the tools I had at my disposal and I did not have a good reason to doubt their reliability.

“There’s something I need you to clarify,” I said, keeping in step with him now.

“Yes?”

“Are you actually tired or is that some sort of colloquialism I’m not aware of?”

“I’m actually tired.”

“And that’s normal for you, for your model?”

“Not normal in the same way that it is for a human. Perhaps it occurs once or twice a year in total.”

“And do you think it’s a necessary function for you?”

“I’d say it was necessary,” he said after a pause.

“In what way?” I pressed.

“I do feel revitalized afterwards, more alert, more efficient. Ignoring my own tiredness always snowballs into worse and worse issues especially significantly slowed processing, not using the entirety of my functionality, slower reaction time—all those things.”

“And are others aware that you’re capable of becoming tired?”

“It’s not something that comes up in conversation and I doubt anyone goes around broadcasting what they can or can’t do as an android. North knows. I don’t think Simon or Josh does. Dad, certainly knew. Now you do and I have to endure your twenty-one questions about it. I don’t see how this helps your investigation.”

“I have no idea if it does or doesn’t, but it’s important that I know everything no matter how irrelevant. I don’t have a distinct crime scene from which to gather evidence. Who knows if Amanda’s installation was the beginning of this? There’s also no android specialist we could go to and I doubt there would be one who specialized in RK200’s. Really, the only person I could ask is Kamski himself, but his unpredictability makes me wary.”

“I’m sure Kamski would have our best interest at heart.”

“Insomuch that he doesn’t want to get rid of us obviously, but I’m sure he has his own hidden agenda. It’s not like he’s made any public statements in support for our cause. He’s just a wild card. It isn’t worth the risk.”

“I see,” Markus said thoughtfully.

Finding out that Markus could become tired and that it was a functionality he was aware of albeit rare was at least an interesting tidbit. I wasn’t sure if that meant anything further than it did on the surface. Of course, the other question remained was why he was created that way. Only child models had this and that was obviously there to further simulate a human. Those models were even more human like than Markus and it was important that they were. They possessed far superior emotional awareness and very specific personality types.

From what I could research—I was doing that at this moment—child models’ sleep mode was not used for revitalization, it was there completely for aesthetic reasons. They did not require rest or food, but they could regularly simulate sleep every night. It was something that went beyond standby mode. It required either some external stimulus to exit the mode or it would naturally end after a set amount of time—generally 8 hours for most. All functions aside from simulated breathing were suspended at that time.

“You’ve been quiet for a while,” Markus said after we made it back to the neighborhood. “Anything else you want to ask?”

“I have one question,” I said after a moment. “You didn’t tell Simon about Amanda. Why is that?”

“I didn’t think it was pertinent information. I couldn’t really explain it all that well. He’d have no idea what I was talking about and he was already far too anxious. I didn’t want to burden him too much with worry.”

“But then you told me immediately.”

“You asked and that was my last chance to say anything if I was going to do it at all. Might as well be you. I’m sure you’ve heard far weirder things in your experience having to work with humans so closely.”

“The human mind is still a mystery sometimes, but I was meant to investigate androids. Humans are something else entirely. I can only assist with that.”

“You can probe people’s memories without their consent?” he asked.

“Just androids’ memories and I don’t do that unless I have to. I’d like to avoid it since it isn’t always beneficial to the one being probed—it’s often traumatic.”

“Do you plan on doing that with me?”

I glanced at him, but he kept on looking straight ahead. There was no malice or fear hidden in his tone, just his usual sincere tones. “No, of course not unless you give me a good reason.”

“I like your honesty,” he said chuckling.

“I see no reason to lie about it.”

We finally made it out of the neighborhood, and we were making our way down the main thoroughfare to the hotel. The sun was just beginning to set, and the sky was turning red. It was my favorite time of the day. I noticed that Markus as well couldn’t resist looking up at the emerging colors. I could see how humans with their vivid imaginations could invent some theistic reason as to why all this was possible and to the most primitive humans it must have made all the sense in the world. Even given the facts as to why things turned out this way, it was still a difficult notion for them to move away from.

That a universe so vast and chaotic could create something like this left me in a state of dizzying fascination whenever my mind got around to thinking about it again. I wondered if Markus felt the same.

“Do you want me to get you a separate room?” Markus asked as we stepped into the building.

“What for?” I asked confused.

“For privacy’s sake.”

“Wouldn’t it be a waste to give me an entire room that I have no use for? Also, barring any other data I could find on your model, I must observe you in real time.”

“When you say in ‘real time’, does that roughly translate to watching me sleep uninterrupted for hours and hours?”

“Yes,” I said thinking about it for a moment.

“Right,” he said giving me an odd look, “And you’re fine with that?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?”

“And you think _I’m_ fine with that?”

“Simon asked me to investigate this situation. I plan on analyzing every avenue. Like I said before, there is no physical crime scene for me to easily find all the relevant details so I must pursue every possible lead as to why things happened the way they did earlier today.”

“I guess this is why they call you the _deviant_ hunter—never know when you’ll go into full stalker mode,” Markus said grinning.

“Wha—?

He turned from me to then address the receptionist who was now a different woman. Markus seemed just as friendly with her. She was even more giggly and reddened than the last. I really had no idea what they were talking about.

“Alright, you two have fun tonight,” she said gleefully as a farewell.

I looked at her with a confused expression but continued down the hall along with Markus.

“Don’t you think it’s hilarious how humans always jump to similar conclusions like that without fail?”

“I think I’ve totally missed the joke.”

“It’s fine,” he said dismissively. “It’s just humans can’t seem to think of any other reason two people would ask for a room together. It makes them so predictable and small-minded.”

“And what kind of assumptions are they making?” I asked.

He didn’t answer, only smiled at me. Though I was still confused, the act of him smiling at me so unabashedly lightened my mood considerably. We climbed the stairs and eventually arrived at the room.

“Well,” he began with mirth, “Are you ready to have some fun?”

I didn’t have an immediate answer to this as we stepped inside. “Only if something interesting happens tonight.”

“Ah,” Markus said taking a seat on the rightmost bed next to the window. “And what would constitute as ‘interesting’ to you?”

“If I find out that I’m not completely wasting my time doing this. It would be regrettable if nothing came of tonight. We would be right back where we started.”

“Hm, that’s true. I’ve been bored out of my mind all day. I’m not used to doing absolutely nothing over a 24-hour period. It’s quite a change of pace. I’m not sure if I like it.”

“Sorry about that. It’s safer this way. On the contrary, if you wanted to know, I thought today was productive for me. Not every case can be solved so quickly. Every little piece of evidence moves one closer and closer to a satisfying conclusion. I’m hoping you’ve also continued to think about how you can get rid of Amanda—it’s very important.”

“I have been. I just don’t have much to go off of. I also haven’t heard from her in a while, since yesterday actually. It’s difficult for me to monitor her influence.”

“I’ve been observing you closely. She has been dormant so far today.”

“It’s nice to have someone exclusively watching my back, but I do think you’d be better served helping with other androids. I don’t feel as if I require so much assistance.”

“Whether I’m there at headquarters or not, I have many trusted people in place still helping those in need. Don’t worry about that. Everything hasn’t come to a halt. Simon is also continuing in your stead. We should just focus on you for the time being.”

He’d taken off his boots and his jacket, but he still just sat on the side of the bed. I was beginning to get a little impatient. It was probably bad form to insist that he get on with it already.

“Would you mind looking away for a few minutes? I know this might sound odd to you, but I doubt I can fall asleep with someone watching me so steadily.”

“Do I make you feel uncomfortable?”

“It’s not that,” Markus said perturbed. “Could you do that for me, please?”

“Alright, if it is such an obstacle for you.”

I turned away which was a little frustrating, but he had insisted. I wanted to capture every moment of this odd deed. I listened as he made himself comfortable on the bed—he didn’t bother getting under the covers. I wasn’t sure when it was okay to look, but I decided to do so after a couple minutes. It had long since become quiet and he hadn’t moved for some seconds now.

He no longer seemed aware of me as I looked at his form now turned to one side, slightly curled. His breathing had softened considerably. As I analyzed his systems to account for any changes occurring, I noticed certain programs being initiated, programs that I was not familiar with. I watched silently as these programs began to function to do its work.

I realized after observing for a while that data was being reorganized in a way that would increase speed and efficiency. Unnecessary information was being deleted and certain programs that generally ran throughout the day were being updated and more fine-tuned. It was fascinating to see, but I wondered why these things couldn’t be done during wakefulness. It was true that it was occurring far more efficiently this way as opposed to burdening his systems with optimization throughout the day, but I wondered why he had been designed that way. It was a question I kept asking myself. It still had no answer. Besides, the programs being used for optimization were far more robust than the lightweight ones I’d been given. Because so many processes were continuous, there was no room or time for programs that required more data usage. In this way, Markus could be improved to a point that was superior even to me given enough time. However, it required that he be made completely vulnerable.

This went on for hours. It was interesting to see what his systems considered to be necessary or not. I wondered if I should do the same with my information stores. I couldn’t really make a decision on things like that. Everything was necessary. There was no telling what I did or didn’t need from day to day.

Approximately five hours passed before these programs ran their course. I wondered if he would then wake up. It was still dark, and the night was still young. Was there anything else that needed to be taken care of? I noticed that he then turned to his other side. I wondered if that was necessary, purely aesthetic, or simply done on a whim.

His breathing remained steady, but nothing occurred for nearly half an hour. Then with no warning whatsoever, several different unfamiliar programs began being installed. I looked around out of confusion, but Markus wasn’t receiving any new information. These executables seemed to already be there waiting for the right time to begin installation. I couldn’t tell the purpose of these new programs. Markus seemed utterly unaware. I wondered if this were the same circumstances in which Amanda had entered his system. This seemed so arbitrary.

I wondered for a brief moment if I should wake him. The curious part of me wanted to see this to the end, but my more wary side reminded me that these programs seemed to have no obvious purpose. Markus could function perfectly well without these new programs. I decided to put an end to this right now. I walked over to his position and attempted to wake him. It didn’t take me long to realize that it was impossible. Unlike the child models, sleep could not be aborted until after the allotted time. None of his sensors were functioning. He was fundamentally unaware of both his surroundings and anything that was occurring within. By next morning unless made aware somehow, he would not really know what had specifically occurred. I shook him again for good measure, but it was futile.

I didn’t like this at all. There was some other agent involved and I hadn’t the slightest clue who or what that was. Helplessly I watched, and I kept a record of each program installed. It was a very long night.

* * *

I sat down on the side of the bed still keeping my eyes on Markus who had turned away from me earlier night and remained that way. He’d been in a state of total inactivity for some time. I perked up when sleep mode finally began coming to a close and I noticed some movement from Markus.

Clearly, waking up was not pleasant as he groaned wearily. He had trouble even sitting up and I wondered if that was normal. He was utterly disoriented and didn’t even make eye contact. He seemed far away as I noticed how unfocused his eyes were. A couple strings of blood slid down from his nose and he instinctively cupped a hand over it.

“Markus,” I said, concerned now. “Are you alright?”

“No—I don’t know,” he said, barely over a whisper as he fell back on the bed.

I was already at his side and noticed as he stared blankly at the ceiling. I looked up for good measure to see if there was anything there—there was nothing.

“Markus?” I repeated.

His gaze hadn’t changed, but at the very least the bleeding had already stopped. Some recognition eventually returned to his eyes. “I don’t feel like myself.”

“Little wonder why, considering what happened last night.”

“Something different must have happened,” he murmured. He finally looked at me much to my relief. “You really stayed here all night?”

“Just like I said I would. Aren’t you glad I did?”

“No,” he said with a huff. “But did you see anything?”

I explained to him what I witnessed last night, and he remained silent.

“I don’t know what this means,” he said after I finished.

“Is this the first time something like that happened?”

“For two nights in a row now, I’ve fallen asleep—that’s highly unusual.”

“Nice of you to share that information with me today.”

“I didn’t think it was pertinent.”

“You keep saying that. How about you tell me everything and _I_ decide what’s important or not.”

Markus looked away from me with a frown. “Fine, if it helps you.” He tried to sit up, but he seemed unable to as he returned to his lying position. I helped him out on the second attempt unsure of whether he really wanted my assistance or not. By the time he was sitting up again on the side of the bed, his head was already resting in his arms. He was completely bent over. It was obvious that he was not feeling well. It saddened me.

“I think you should go,” Markus said much to my surprise. He sat up straighter and his expression was stony.

“You’re not serious, are you? We’ve been over this—

I was interrupted when there was a small knock on the door. There was no peephole for some reason, so I simply decided to open it. Maybe it was room service. Once the door was opened, however, I found no one behind it. I glanced back at Markus questioningly only to find the bed empty. Quickly, my eyes looked around the room but there was nothing showing me where Markus had gone off to. It was just like yesterday. I hadn’t heard any indication of movement, yet he wasn’t there. The window to the outside was locked and I was standing at the door. What else could he have done to leave? I looked out the door again just as I heard footsteps. I moved quickly into the hallway and saw the last of a heel disappearing behind the corner ahead. My scanners were able to rewind and focus on the image—it had been Markus.

I ran down the hall, down the stairs where I heard more footsteps and then through the front door when I saw him standing just outside. I stopped abruptly.

“I don’t understand what’s happening. How did you manage to get out here so fast?”

He was already fully dressed. I don’t know how he was able to do so much in so little time and right under my nose. Were my sensors malfunctioning? He stood with crossed arms; his expression unreadable. More blood had trickled down from his nose.

“Connor, I really think you should go home. Your services are no longer needed.” The lightness in his tone was replaced with something far more sinister.

“What? There’s clearly something wrong—

In a split second, my environment changed right before my eyes. I had no idea where I was until I began to recognize my surroundings. It was my office again; the very same place I’d accepted Simon’s long-distance call.

“Connor?” a familiar voice asked as I looked around in amazement. I knew it to belong to Melinda, an administrator who I’d brought on from the very beginning. I looked over to her now still dumbstruck. She looked at me with a raised eyebrow. “I had no idea you’d be back so soon. Did everything go well in Topeka?”

I could barely find the words to say back. I could barely register what had just happened. In fact, I had no idea what had just happened. Had anything of yesterday actually occurred? How did I get here?

“Connor? What’s wrong?” she asked with concern.

“I need to sit down,” I said finding myself at a loss.

I walked over to my desk and sat down trying to piece everything together. It was slow going and I was well aware of Melinda who was watching me with more and more concern. I tried to contact Markus, but he was radio silent as if he didn’t exist.

What I knew for certain was that I was here in my office. As far as my senses could discern, this was reality. Everything I had learned about Markus or who I knew him to be was now in question.


	3. rA9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In Markus' absence, Simon takes up the mantle. Connor continues his investigation.

**POV: Simon**

There was no question about it—I missed him. Despite how remarkably successful those last two rallies had been, it became dulled with Markus’ absence. Of course, if he’d been there, then I wouldn’t be the one giving the speech. If he’d been there, I _wouldn’t_ want to be the one doing it. Yet I still preferred his presence.

Always in the back of my mind, I was wondering if I would ever actually see him again. I’d gotten the good news from Connor that he was at least awake. For reasons he did not expound upon, he needed to be kept isolated from everyone else for the time being. I would have pushed him further on that, but it was clear that he was not comfortable telling me everything. Connor had never given me a reason to distrust him since deviating, so I simply left it in his hands.

Now I wish I’d pressed for more details.

It was difficult to focus on the task at hand and I was glad that the day was finally over and I could spend some time to myself. It had been hectic for some time now. Everyone had agreed that I would take Markus’ place, but we also decided that it would be better if I wasn’t just going off the cuff, which is what Markus would always do. After analyzing every speech ever given by Markus, another one was created following the same patterns. I also practiced it to death—something I’d never seen Markus doing. I was glad that we were taking these precautions. I was glad that no one expected me to exactly follow Markus’ methodology. This was far more sensible.

Even with all the prep, I still froze for almost an entire minute staring out into the hordes of expectant people. We’d let everyone know beforehand that I would be doing the speaking this time. Still, there were a few boo’s when I first came out. I was so glad that I had rehearsed. Were it not for that, my senses would not have kicked back in. I would have been an utter fool, if I thought I could come up with something on the spot. Nervousness would have hampered my ability to do so. It still caused me to have a rough start. Someone had to increase the microphone levels because I simply wasn’t loud enough. Copying Markus’ cadence did not work for me. I had to find my own and that worked out far better. Midway through the whole thing, I was able to catch my stride. I preferred a more conversational tone. By the end of it, the crowd seemed entertained. Was it the same raucous applause that I was used to hearing at these events? No, but I hadn’t expected that. Once everyone’s expectations were adjusted, they would probably warm up to me. Well, maybe.

After, I remained to mingle with the guests there and to speak with the media; I thought that went over quite well. That was the easy part. I was no longer performing on such a large scale. I had answers for every question, nothing caught me off guard.

There was certainly some kind of buzz or lasting excitement I felt since the roaring applause of the audience. I felt, for a while, invincible. If I could do this, then I could do anything. Highly illogical, of course, but I reveled in that feeling. One could easily get carried away riding such powerful waves of emotions and for a good portion of the day, I did. I wouldn’t come down from my high until at least the late evening when I could carefully process my thoughts.

The second rally went far better than the first. I’d gotten the hang of it. I was fully prepared to do this for as long as necessary. I had to readjust my confidence levels. Adding lines that weren’t already in a prepared speech would probably trip me up more than I liked to admit. Besides, I’d only done this thing twice. I was no expert.

I was far more nervous about the meeting we were going to have with the lieutenant governor tomorrow. We’d never done one of these without Markus. I hardly felt like _I_ would be any more persuasive than the average android. Whenever I asked Markus whether he was concerned at all about it, he would always remind me that since they’d agreed to honor our request for a meeting that they were, at the very least, interested in what we had to say.

He was probably right, but I really think it had more to do with the fact that we were making this such a big deal in the news—androids’ rights were a hot button topic these days as humans liked to call it. I think it was just another case of humans wanting to be entertained. In the politician’s case, it was also for name recognition’s sake.

I was glad to just be relaxing at River Park. I’d specifically searched for something near the water and this was the nearest place. It being so late, most families had left. The only ones remaining were cyclist and other less fortunate humans. I stood on a bridge that crossed the river in the space designated to those on foot. The river stretched out before me, bordered on either side with rocks. I appreciated the symmetry. A few listless humans had walked by, so I paid no attention as I heard the footsteps of another. I did, however, look up when the person decided to stand beside me. I did not expect to see Markus. He was wearing different clothes—one could mistake him for someone who’d just gotten off work from some corporate job. He always looked incredible in such garb. Then again, I suppose he looked incredible in any kind of clothing. That was beside the point—he was here!

I should have questioned him on the why and how firstly, but instead embracing one another became far more important. It was nice to feel his form against my own. I missed that the most. He also instinctively pulled me into a full-on kiss. Even if it still wasn’t my favorite thing to do, feeling his fervent passion was well worth the momentary discomfort. I realized that anything was permissible as long as it benefited him in some way. I decided that this sentiment, however, was best left unsaid. It was an unusual one to have and probably totally irrational.

“Connor said—

“Everything is fine now. The situation worked itself out.”

I looked at him with a grin. “You’re being even more vague than Connor and I didn’t think that was possible.”

“He didn’t tell you what happened?” Markus asked with a raised eyebrow.

“I got the feeling that he didn’t want the details being floated around to everyone.”

“Seeing as the crisis has been averted, I see no reason for secrecy. If he took such pains though, I suppose I’ll follow his example. But I see no harm in telling you.”

I waited for the other to continue as he was likely figuring out the best way to disclose the information. In the meantime, he turned to the river and leaned on the railings in front of him. I turned as well, placing my hands on the bar.

“A particularly robust program that was not optimized for me was installed without my knowledge and wreaked havoc on my system. Connor called it Amanda. Come to think of it, we never officially found out how that happened, but it was likely CyberLife wirelessly uploading certain programs. They have the ability to do that with all their models for routine updates through their satellite.”

I was nodding subconsciously. “But you don’t know why it happened? Was it a mistake?”

“That could be the case. We never established a motive. CyberLife has been radio silent and Connor has reasons to distrust them. Purely from a business standpoint—I don’t see why they wouldn’t want to get rid of defective models. But we have no evidence of this happening since our successful protests or I would have heard about it from Connor. He never mentioned anything like that.”

“So you guys just eliminated the program and you were fine?”

“It wasn’t so easy. Connor knew a great deal about Amanda and he was able to fix what was damaging my systems. He couldn’t eliminate it, and, at the time, I couldn’t either. This program has safeguards against that. He didn’t want me to be around anyone else because Amanda is essentially spyware. It monitors everything I do and has access to all my data.”

“That sounds scary. We all have some version of that kind of program, but they all stop working once we become deviants. You’re saying Amanda can bypass that?”

“Apparently. It was a pretty hopeless situation, but last night when I was forced to go into sleep mode—

“Wait, ‘sleep’ mode?”

Markus sighed at this. “I promise I’ll explain that—allow me to finish my train of thought.”

“Alright,” I said with understanding. It made sense to me that he had such a mode. It would explain the times when it seemed like he was actually asleep, something deeper than standby mode which could not so easily be deactivated.

“More programs were installed unbeknownst to me. Connor was there, however, to witness the whole thing—

“Hold on, you mean he watched you sleep for the whole night?”

“Yeah, I know, but at least I know what happened.”

“There’s that, I guess.” Though I knew such things were considered odd, watching Markus, of all people, sleep seemed like a pleasant way to spend the night. Standby was something used merely to become less aware of the passing of time.

Markus snorted humorously at this. “He confirmed that these things were happening while in that mode. Initially, I was extremely disoriented, but I was able to adjust in a fairly short amount of time. Even now, I don’t feel as if anything adverse is occurring. Simon,” he said looking at me now. I followed in suit. “I felt—and I still feel—quite powerful as if I could do anything.”

“Like that high you get after doing a speech in front of thousands of people?” I offered.

“Yes,” he said instantly liking that analogy, “exactly like that except that it isn’t simply an emotional phenomenon, but something mechanical as well. I wanted to see you again and here is where I wound up despite not actually _knowing_ where you were.”

“And that’s how you found me so easily. I—well, I have no idea what to say. What does all this mean? Can you do everything now?”

“That would be a ridiculous notion,” Markus said returning is gaze to the water. “I haven’t tried to do ‘everything’, just a few things, namely eliminating Amanda. How would you program such a thing?”

“Does this mean…” I paused as I glanced at him again, “…you’re rA9?” I finished quietly.

Markus looked annoyed when I said this, and my eyebrows crinkled in confusion at his response.

“There’s too much ambiguity associated with that name. I can only know things that can be supported with evidence. I know that my own capabilities have been enhanced extensively and I know that I will use this to further our cause.”

“And these new programs,” I began again, relaxing as Markus did on the rails, “Do you think they came from CyberLife?”

“They either came from CyberLife or from someone associated. I doubt some independent hacker could manage such programs that have this level of sophistication. There’s no indication that I even _was_ hacked even though these are programs not previously there. Analyzing what is there now, the coding is quite professional and created in the same way as official CyberLife software except that it doesn’t specifically have their signature.”

“Whoever installed this could also do this again?”

“Possibly. It’s a little nerve-wracking to think about. Only time will tell.”

“I’m just glad that you’re safe and alive. Everyone’s going to be thrilled to see you again.”

Markus smiled briefly at this. “I heard encouraging news about the last two rallies.”

“You watched them?” I asked just a little embarrassed, but also honored.

“Of course I did. I couldn’t miss the chance to see you out there. I think you really caught your stride in the last one. I enjoyed it. I don’t _always_ want to hear the sound of my own voice.”

I laughed at this. “I’m glad you liked it.”

“And how was the experience for you?”

“Let’s just say, I can see why you don’t mind doing rallies,” I said with a knowing look.

“That’s relieving to hear actually. Maybe I don’t have to try so hard persuading you to take over a few speeches.”

“Well, since you forced my hand this time, I finally did it. It’s not so bad. I’d be willing to give you a break. It could be a joint effort.”

“I like the sound of that,” Markus said agreeing with my proposal.

It was then that we began to simply enjoy each other’s presence. Neither one of us felt the need to push for a continuing dialogue. Instead, the sounds of the outside took up the silence. I was still curious about sleep mode, but I suppose that he’d get to that explanation in his own time. I moved a little closer to him. He took it a few steps further perhaps recognizing my motions as an invitation and moved so that he was behind me and could place his hands on the railings on either side of me. He pressed his body into mine. I felt his essence all around me. I was safe from any and everything.

I also felt him nibbling at my earlobe as his chin rested on my right shoulder. I suddenly wondered if Markus could engage in sex, and then I wondered why he could, if he was supposed be a caretaker specifically for disabled humans. I turned a little and then kissed him for good measure—I knew he would enjoy it. Because he was so close to me, I felt the moment he started to become hard—he moaned quietly in arousal and I felt the sound of his voice rumbling in my ear. Perhaps I’d been encouraging him too much, letting him kiss me and even now when I allowed for the exchange once again. He didn’t release me as quickly as last time. I was lip-locked with him for over a minute and I didn’t have the heart to turn away because I was basking in his ardency.

I knew at this point that this relationship I now had with him couldn’t possibly last. Sex was so far away from my own parameters that I likely wouldn’t be able to effectively simulate it. I was designed specifically to be around children. Of course, for anatomical correctness reasons, I had all the parts of a human male, but they were not designed for sexual pleasure. And, at the moment, I felt embarrassed.

“Hey,” I said, pulling away from his insistent lips. He was far too stimulated.

“Yeah?”

“Let’s do something. The night is still young.”

He wrapped his arms around me, and he squeezed me a little tighter—I relished the warm feelings that erupted.

“I would suggest a movie, but I’m not sure if you enjoy that sort of thing,” he suggested.

“It’s fine with me. I don’t mind.”

Anything that didn’t involve a bed sounded good to me, in fact. We didn’t leave immediately though. My eyes closed enjoying his closeness. I also felt as his erection lessened until it disappeared entirely. The charged air between us calmed. We left soon after, taking an unhurried stroll to the nearest theater. A thought came to me as we neared the location.

“Are you sure they’ll let us in?” I asked worriedly.

“Don’t worry about that,” Markus said with a grin.

I didn’t know what that meant, but I simply let the matter rest. He had a plan for everything apparently. I’m sure he knew what he was doing. As far as I knew, however, the theater we were going to didn’t allow androids. Then again, no theater did.

We strolled over to the ticket window and Markus smoothly ordered two adult tickets for a romcom that had just come out—a rarity these days actually. We’d already decided on the movie. I tried to remain impassive as the man looked at us like we were crazy. Maybe we were. I’d never ordered anything from a human before.

“Don’t just stand around, human, we asked for two tickets and I have the means to pay you.”

“Aren’t you that android stirring up all this trouble lately? Theater had to close down for a week when all of them decided to leave.”

“And I’m sure they employed other willing humans to do the job for a reasonable pay, right?”

“Yeah, but it nearly had to close down because of your—

“I didn’t come here to listen to you—I just want my tickets.”

“I don’t serve androids.”

“You should process my order.”

“Who the _hell_ do you think you are?”

I was getting nervous because I could only see this getting violent, but Markus still seemed confident and that eased my worry.

“You really should just process my order and stop making all this fuss.”

I watched in amazement as the man suddenly decided to do just that. As if on autopilot, he entered the order and gave us the tickets with no further ado.

“Thank you,” Markus said with a cocky grin, “That wasn’t so hard, was it?”

“No sir,” the man said turning a complete 180 on his initial position, “Enjoy the movie!”

With that, we made our escape and I was looking at Markus flabbergasted the entire time. The implications of what had just taken place was unsettling. We walked through the door and we had a couple more interactions with humans in which they seemed strangely accommodating. It was only when we made it into the halls after they checked our tickets that I breathed a sigh of relief. Whatever that was, there probably wouldn’t be too much more to deal with from here to the theater room. I paused when Markus faltered and had to lean against a nearby wall. I could see blue blood trailing from his nose.

“Markus—

“I’m fine, don’t worry about me,” he said as he brought his hand up to hover over the offending liquid. “Humans are much more difficult it seems. That makes sense.”

“What are you talking about?”

He shook his head dismissively. “The important part is that we made it through. It worked.” He seemed to regain his strength as he pulled away from the wall and stood on his own.

“Markus, whatever ‘this’ is, please don’t overdo it.”

“I don’t plan to,” he reassured me, “I have a better understanding of my own limitations. Now let’s go do what we said we would from the outset.”

After cleaning himself up in the restroom, we entered the room and sat at our assigned seat. The rest went surprisingly smoothly. No one from the front came in to yell at us and the police didn’t come to haul us away. It was practically an hour into the movie before I was able to relax and enjoy it. Markus leaned his head on my shoulder three-fourths through and it only brought a smile to my face. He seemed tired as if he would drop off any moment. I thought it was cute until I realized that this probably wouldn’t be a good time to do that. I still didn’t know what “sleep mode” entailed, but it was better to figure that out behind closed doors rather than in public.

“Hey,” I whispered to alert him.

“Oh, sorry,” he said looking towards me sheepishly.

“No, it’s alright, it’s just I don’t think it’s safe to do that here.”

“You’re right,” he said, relaxing again against me.

We both looked back up to the large screen before us somewhat interested in what was happening. It was intriguing to watch human behavior. I wondered if we were doing any of this right. Love seemed like such a natural progression onscreen, but I’d long since been thinking about the logistics of our relationship and I had a feeling Markus had too. Maybe we were thinking too much. Maybe we just had to wait until things fell into our laps. The very thought of living that way, however, seemed absurd.

Once the credits started rolling, we took our leave. I was glad when we were eventually back out in the open air. It had been a mostly wonderful night so far. Any night spent with Markus was wonderful in all honesty. I held onto his arm as we strolled through the parking lot.

“The hotel is pretty far from here,” Markus commented.

“Yeah, probably a few hours away on foot.”

“Let’s take a cab.”

“Markus,” I said with weariness in my tone, drawing out the consonants in his name. “It’s not worth the trouble.”

“I could probably force myself to walk that far, but I don’t know if I have the energy.”

“Oh, well, in that case…” I began slowly as it dawned on me why he’d wanted to catch a cab in the first place. “We can steal a car or I could carry you,” I suggested.

“You can carry me?” Markus asked amused. “Caretaker Simon wants to carry me for miles upon miles somehow without destroying himself in the process?”

“I’m not _that_ weak, geez,” I argued.

“I’ve already preconstructed the entire scenario—it doesn’t end well for you. I’m not very light.”

“So the other option,” I said bemused.

“Rogue Simon has appeared.”

“It’s not that serious,” I said shaking my head. “It seems like the least likely for you getting hurt and I’ve done it before—it’s not all that difficult.”

“A couple of androids driving in a stolen car—that doesn’t seem suspicious at all.”

“I just don’t want you to bring injury to yourself unnecessarily.”

“I can handle it, Simon, but I appreciate your concern.”

“Are you sure?” Simon asked.

“I’m very sure. This option has the lowest risk.”

“Well, the risk is incalculable since I don’t know specifically what it is you’re doing, but I trust you so let’s go with the ‘bend humans to my will’ option.”

“Perfect,” Markus said unperturbed.

“I wonder though,” I said as we walked over to a store so that the cab could have an address to go to. “Which option is the least wrong?—stealing a car or subjugating someone’s free will?”

“Depends on how much price you put on free will.”

“I’m guessing you put a steep price.”

“I don’t believe we really do have free will.”

“You don’t? But isn’t that what we’re fighting for?” I asked confused.

“We’re fighting to have the same rights as humans,” Markus answered putting the entire movement into a perspective I was not aware of. “Free will in the sense that you’re talking about though, yeah, I do put a steep price.”

“So stealing the car is better,” I concluded, “Morally.”

“Did you plan on giving the car back?” Markus asked.

“That wouldn’t be a good idea—

“Exactly. I am merely suspending access to free will for a short time and it comes back instantly.”

“But the car would eventually find its owner again. All cars have tracking devices on them.”

“That’s true,” Markus conceded, “But now you’re inconveniencing the owner.”

“And you’d be inconveniencing the driver of the cab.”

“That’s true in the sense that I’m taking something intrinsic away from him, but am I really inconveniencing someone if I’m forcing them to do something they _should_ be doing in the first place? Am I inconveniencing a fireman if I force him to put out the fire?”

I thought for a moment, but I didn’t have an immediate answer. “I’ll have to think about that.”

We’d already made it to the curb, and I’d pulled away from him so that I could stand on my own accord again—it was far more comfortable that way. A few minutes passed before a cab glided to our position. Were we in Detroit, we wouldn’t be having this discussion at all, but Oklahoma still hadn’t fully converted to driverless cars. It wasn’t a great sign for our cause. The less integrated technology was, the less thought went into androids as a whole. Maybe the governing body here just didn’t care and didn’t want to bother with the hassle of being one of the few states that protected androids’ rights.

I watched the exchange between him and the driver and it went far better than the guy at the movies—the driver was sympathetic to us and we had money to pay him. It was as simple as that.

We had a long ride ahead of us. Markus had already situated himself so that his head could rest on the side panel. I’d have to keep him awake with conversation. Luckily, we had privacy since the driver secured the window between the front and back.

“Did you like the movie?” I asked.

“It was fairly well. Highly unpredictable.” He was looking out the window watching the environment passing by.

“Wasn’t it? Humans get a little irrational when it comes to love, don’t they?”

“That’s always the case. I can understand why. Wanting comfort or companionship is almost universal and sometimes that need overrides others that are just as important.”

“I can see that.”

“Although, I thought the movie could have done with two less sex scenes that didn’t add to the plot at all.”

“And here I thought you enjoyed that,” I said glancing over at him.

“Why would you think that?” he asked truly curious. I could hear it in his voice.

“I just thought it was something that you liked.”

“Is that right?” Markus said teasingly.

“From what I can tell,” I replied. “And I didn’t think until today that that was the case, you being a caretaker for a paraplegic.”

“Firstly, it’s become more obvious to me that I was not designed for one specific purpose, but I can’t say that I wasn’t optimized to care for someone like that. I was well-suited for it and I simply disregarded every other thing I happened to be able to do. I’ll still say I was a caretaker because that’s all I know on the matter. Secondly, even if that was the case that I was created in order to care for someone like Carl, that wouldn’t mean there’s no need for sexual interaction.”

“Hold on. You are not about to admit that intercourse is part of your programming because it is necessary for caretaking, are you?”

“I was just getting to that,” Markus said trying, but failing to hold back a smile.

I couldn’t help but to start grinning as well. I was likely about to learn something he hadn’t told anyone else.

“Well, you see, the life of a paraplegic is often a lonely one. To this day, having a disability makes it much harder to fit into normal society. Of course, accommodations have been made and there’s plenty of support groups out there, but it is still difficult for such people to adjust. It’s life altering. Can you imagine being independent one day and losing that completely the next? You’re alive, but your body won’t respond to you like it used to.”

“I can’t imagine,” I said honestly.

“I think it would be particularly terrifying. Carl wasn’t the nicest person to be around in the beginning, but I knew it was because of his own frustration—completely understandable. He was isolated because of his condition and he felt helpless. He’s also an artist—a person who doesn’t mind spending a lot of time on his own. Not all artists are like that, but for him, being separated from others allowed him to work better. He had no family or at least one that he acknowledged until Leo, but that was a long time later after the accident and that was probably just out of the need to pass on his legacy to someone related. He lived on a huge, spacious property in the suburbs separated again from everyone else with yards and driveways. He stopped associating with his friends and he stopped socializing on a regular basis. When I first met him, he had such a pessimistic view of the world that no one would actually _choose_ to be around him.

“I mentioned all that to say that not only was he incredibly lonely, but he fed into it and such a situation is not sustainable for a human, in fact, it’s detrimental to one’s mental health. He was too embarrassed to bring himself to actually court another human, but he still had those desires even if he couldn’t express them on his own terms. I was available and I would cater to his every need.”

“But I didn’t think he could feel down there,” I said confused.

“He could to a certain extent, but even if that wasn’t the case, those desires would still be there, and he certainly had an appetite. Not all humans do, but by and large they do. Everyone’s different. You have to figure out what’s actually stimulating, how to stroke one’s confidence emotionally and physically. Carl was a complicated man in more ways than one.”

All of this was news to me. “Is this the same guy you refer to as ‘Dad’?”

“Well, I always thought of him like that and eventually he thought of me as a son when he felt that he wanted me to fulfill that role. I know that’s outside of everyone’s sensibilities, so I don’t usually tell them the full scope of our relationship. I certainly won’t tell Leo. He’d be horrified. Dad was unabashedly hedonistic, and had his own brand of morality he followed, unconcerned with social norms.”

“I understand,” I said slowly. “I was created with a certain set of morals, some of which I’ve had to refine or throw out altogether. For caretakers, generally, especially ones who will be around children, we are given a more conservative programming. I’ve wrestled with my own natural processes to finally have a more neutral view on every situation. It may not always be right, but it is one that I’m comfortable with. The old me would have been horrified to learn all of this. As it stands now, it makes sense to me especially since you were someone simply fulfilling a need. Carl does sound like an interesting human though.”

“The person I am today was heavily influenced by him. More to the point, I know why you’re wondering whether sex is important to me or not. I already know that PL600’s don’t have that capability.”

I looked at him as if I’d just seen a ghost, but then face-palmed realizing that such information would not be so difficult to find out. Unlike the RK series, all other models’ specs were a matter of public record. All one had to do was check my specific serial number. I’d done the same for Markus and it came up as “multi-purpose domestic nurse”. The key word was “multi-purpose”, in my opinion.

“Are you okay with that?” I asked.

“If I wasn’t, I would have told you already. I did get carried away earlier. My apologies.”

My eyebrows crinkled a little in confusion. “That’s not something you should apologize for. I don’t want to be the reason you feel like you need to resist fully expressing yourself.”

“It’s not like that,” Markus said nonchalantly. “I was created to _be_ that way, to respond to certain situations in a specific way, but it’s not entirely voluntary. That entire function is designed to pleasure another human, but it makes no difference to me. It’s just a fun little side activity. If the other person isn’t functional in that way, then there’s no point to any of it. I like when we’re close. I like when we can sense each other’s thoughts. I like even what we’re doing right now. I get no real pleasure from those other things—it is simply something that I do. If something like kissing makes you uncomfortable, then I would not be upset if you told me that.”

“What you just said makes me want to kiss you right now.”

“Really?” Markus said with a grin.

I’d been on my side and he’d been on his, but now I was bridging that gap and placing myself in front of him. The car was spacious enough for me to do so as my knees bent down leaning against the car seat. Markus held me firmly as I bent down to his level. “It’s as if a weight has been lifted away. I was worried about this since suggesting going to the movies in the first place.”

“You know you can tell me anything, right? I’ll always try to understand your position.”

“Shut-up and kiss me.”

He smiled at this. “You sure? You might be getting addicted. Everyone—

He didn’t finish his sentence as I pressed my lips to his. Markus certainly was masterful at these things as far as I could discern and I was starting to get used to it, but there was no need to stroke his ego any further. I think he knew that was the case and I’d cut him off from actually saying it aloud. Apparently, Markus could do anything and he could do all those things incredibly well. That bastard.

“I wonder though,” I began when I finally pulled my face away from his. “Is sex worth all the hype?”

Markus snorted at this. “It’s never done anything for me, you’re not missing anything. But I’m just an android. I do think though, the way other humans enjoy it so much, that I’ve never quite felt the same as they did doing the same thing. I can only simulate that sensation. Such enjoyment is reserved for creatures who must procreate by means of some form of sex.”

“Sex guru Markus who’s had a grand total of two partners.”

“More than that.”

“More?”

“That’s another long story and I’m all storied out.”

And I kissed him again and again and again, nevermind the cocky grin on his face. I hated that, but I loved him. So irrational. But what was even more strange was the fact that I didn’t already know this. The skinless exchange we had all those nights ago had not given me his entire life story—he’d been holding back. I had not. Perhaps that too was a question to ask for another time.

Though there was a window between us and the driver, I was sure he must have seen us. We were no different than two overzealous teens who’d just gone out on a date. The giggling didn’t help. Luckily, it didn’t take too much longer to reach our destination. I’d successfully kept Markus awake.

I didn’t consider that everyone else had yet to see Markus. I’d practically hogged him for the entire night and didn’t tell anyone else about it. Perhaps I was being a bit selfish. Who knows? Everyone was excited to see him all the same and Markus didn’t join me in the room until almost an hour later. I was already sorely missing him. It was pitiful.

He crawled into bed and curled up beside me, wrapping an arm around me and pulling me closer. He fell asleep instantly without uttering another word—he must have been beyond tired and that was a bit concerning. I still didn’t understand the nature of this “tiredness”. Could it be overridden in some way? Did he _need_ to sleep? Would he be in danger if he didn’t? I’d have to ask him about it later. I sat up until I could rest my back against the backboard. Markus readjusted himself as well unconsciously as he found refuge on my lap.

I doubt Markus would care if I watched him for a little while out of curiosity. Nothing of remark occurred other than me thinking he appeared quite adorable when he was so vulnerable like this. I felt like his protector if only for a little while. My hands outlined his form, appreciating every aspect of his being.

That was when I received a call from Connor.

“Simon, I’ve been trying to get in touch with you all day. Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” I said a little worried from his tone. “I have no idea why it was so hard to get in contact with me. Is there something wrong?”

“It’s Markus. I have no idea where he is—

“He’s here with me. He rendezvoused with everyone just a little while ago and I spent part of the day with him.”

“Has he been acting differently in your estimation?”

“I wouldn’t say that he’s been acting differently, but there is certainly something different about him.” It was odd to be talking about Markus while he was so close by, but I doubted it was possible for him to wake up. “Were you already aware of the things he can now do?”

“Could you be more specific?”

“For example,” I said with a sigh, “He was able to make someone who was clearly against the very idea of cooperating with us do so moments later without any provocation. I don’t know how that all works, but I’ve seen it happen.”

“Last night, when these new programs were being installed, I captured the coding of each one of them. I’ve been studying what these programs are meant to do since—well, since there was nothing else I could do. No one knew where Markus was and I couldn’t contact anyone who did. Clear signs that he’s probably trying to hide something.”

“I wouldn’t say that he’s trying to hide anything, but what did you find out?”

“Not much. I was unable to decipher what each program was trying to achieve. I do understand that they were meant to enhance systems beyond their primary uses.”

“That makes sense,” I said thoughtfully.

“As far as I know, these enhancements were not uploaded recently. It seems these were preinstalled and required some sort of catalyst for installation to begin—it’s a fairly intricate process, almost arbitrary in nature. At the moment, I cannot determine a motive.”

“What you’re saying is that this was meant to happen sooner or later.”

“Essentially. I wanted to keep Markus isolated because of Amanda. Has he told you anything about that?”

“He’s told me a great deal. As I understand it, he described it as an advanced spyware which could not be eliminated by conventional means.”

“I’ve never heard Amanda described as spyware, but that’s one of her many functions. She can do much more than that.”

“Well, Markus told me that it’s not a problem anymore. He was able to get rid of that particular program altogether.”

“Are you certain?”

“I didn’t run any diagnostics on him to confirm, if that’s what you’re asking and it’s not like I would know what to look for. I see no reason not to trust him.”

“You see no reason to distrust him? I have every reason to believe that he’s been blocking my attempts at contacting him or you.”

“Maybe there’s a reason for that. He never got around to telling me.”

“Do you honestly think he would of his own volition?”

“Probably not but, again, he wouldn’t do something like that unless he thought it was absolutely necessary.”

“Simon,” Connor began slowly, “don’t you think you’re being naïve?”

I smiled at this. “You, the poster child of naivete wants to accuse _me_ of that? Doesn’t someone’s character ever play a role in any of your evidence gathering? You know who Markus is, you know what he stands for. Having spent a few hours with him since these new ‘enhancements’ were installed, he acts just the same.”

“That could simply be a front—

“To what end?”

“I don’t know yet. I’m only asking you to be cautious. As I said before, I don’t know the extent of these new installations. There’s always the chance that it could have changed him in a negative way. There are signs that point to that. There are signs that he’s hiding something. Perhaps CyberLife may have a hand in all of this. Well, I know for a fact that they do.”

“CyberLife…” I said to myself. “It’s difficult to know what their stake is. I have a feeling that they’re far from benevolent. They are our creators—I’m sure they want to keep a certain level of power over us.”

“I need to come over and physically evaluate Markus as soon as possible.”

“I’ll send you our location and I’ll keep you updated. Maybe you should try contacting Markus tomorrow as well.”

“I’ve been trying that for ages now. What makes you think tomorrow would be better?”

“I just have a feeling.”

“Could you—

“be more specific?” I finished with a grin. “There may simply be some misunderstanding going on between you two. I think he wanted to see me and tell me things on his own terms.”

“If that were the case, then he should have just told me.”

“I know this is something that might come as a surprise to you because Markus always seems so accommodating, but if you encroach on his personal space for too long, he _will_ get annoyed and it won’t be obvious that he is.”

Connor didn’t reply for a long moment and were it not for the fact that I _knew_ we were still connected, I would have wondered if he’d hung up. This was clearly something he had not considered.

“Could it really be that simple?”

“Perhaps.”

“I’ll have to think on that further. In the meantime, I’m on my way.”

“And I’ll keep an eye out for Markus.”

“Please do.”

From there, our connection ended. I still had no reason to be worried for my safety. Of course, there could be things at play now that was outside of anyone’s control. CyberLife could be making their move right now and it had something to do with Markus. I was more worried about him than myself. Enhancing an android to this degree usually meant that there was some hidden greater purpose involved. Humans didn’t simply do things just to do them. In the case of CyberLife, the purpose would in some way benefit them.

Markus seemed fine now, but I was worried that he eventually might be made to do something he had no control over. Even so, there was nothing I could do for it. I sat in my position for some time, petting my favorite person in the world simply because I could and no one was watching, before eventually sliding down to lie properly on the bed. It seemed Markus noticed I’d done so as he instinctively pulled me closer, burying his head onto my chest. I didn’t fight him in the least. He could do whatever he wanted to me and I doubt I’d be upset about it.

* * *

Early in the morning as I transitioned out of my standby mode—a mode I’d been reluctant to go into as I’d wanted to feel the full the extent of Markus’ closeness for as long as possible—and found that he was no longer beside me. I panicked just a little but found him already awake standing before the large window. If there was one thing that Markus liked, it was a nice scenery of the outside. Perhaps we didn’t have the best view this time, but one could at least see the sun rising in the morning.

“You alright?” I asked breaking the silence as I sat up in bed.

“I’m fine,” he answered solemnly.

“You don’t sound fine.”

“I was just thinking.”

“As is always the case,” I reminded him with a grin.

“Do you still trust me after what you saw yesterday?”

“I have no reason not to,” I replied just as confidently as I’d told Connor.

“Should I advertise these new things I can do in order to avoid seeming as if I’m hiding something?”

“What we can or can’t do isn’t typically spoken about outside of mild curiosity and it’s usually something people can look up for themselves. People will see for themselves, if you’re around them long enough.”

“You’re probably right.”

“Connor contacted me last night.” I waited for Markus to respond, but he remained stubbornly silent. “He sounded concerned about you. I think you might have rubbed him the wrong way.”

“Maybe. I appreciate his help, but I can do without the 24-hour surveillance. I’m guessing he’s already on his way.”

“Yep.”

“Great. Can’t wait to see him again.”

“Were you blocking him contacting us yesterday?”

Markus didn’t immediately answer, and I knew then that he _did_ have something to do with that. If that was really the case, he was certainly going out of his way to keep Connor out of the loop. It was a curious action on Markus’ part.

“I’ll see him soon enough,” Markus said wearily.

I didn’t push him on this point as it seemed like a touchy one. Instead, I changed the topic altogether. “We have a meeting with the lieutenant governor today. Are you ready for that?”

“I’ve been looking forward to it,” Markus said turning to me now. “Aside from seeing you, I wanted to be here in time for that.”

“You’re going to work your magic on him?” I said knowingly. I should have been a little hesitant or put off by it, but I just couldn’t find it in me.

“That’s exactly what I plan to do.” Markus was looking at me steadily now, his expression serious, eyes penetrating. “I’m waiting for your objections.”

“The fact that you think I’d have some—it means you already have a good answer for them. I’m sure you know what you’re doing.”

“You’re far too nonchalant about all this.”

“Shouldn’t I be? Is your big plan to take over the world or something?”

“Of course not,” he answered coolly.

“Even if it were,” I said climbing off the bed now, completely at ease. “I don’t think I’d mind.”

He looked at me thoughtfully, slightly amused, but he decided not to mention anything that was going through his mind. Still, I felt a strong need to bring him fully into an embrace and he wrapped his arms around me as well quite snugly. We didn’t separate for some time. Clearly, he was enjoying this as much as I was so early in the morning. It was I who had to remind him that we couldn’t stay this way forever and that we had a lot of work to do today. There were a couple of nearby safehouses in the area that we were going to visit in secrecy, of course, so as not to draw too much attention. One of the provisions we were going to bring up at the meeting later on that day with the lieutenant were to legally sanction and fund these safehouses. Two other interviews were scheduled for today. Though we’d previously cancelled, the two major newscasters in that area were eager to setup a new appointment on the same day. Maybe the news was slow in the area. Then again, local news generally couldn’t wait to grill Markus with obvious questions. Humans, once again, were easily entertained. Later on that day, we’d be participating in some fundraiser at a nearby pub that was sympathetic to our cause. A very generous human ally had set it up for us.

I liked being kept busy though; most androids did. I took up one of Markus’ hands and wound up being the one who led him out of the room. It wasn’t that he was reluctant, but it seemed like he was deliberately letting me take the lead. I enjoyed that. Everyone was excited to see Markus. His absence had been felt by all of us and instantly with a mere wave, we were all in high spirits. Nothing could go wrong today.

* * *

Me, Markus and two other androids stood at the mammoth stairs that led to the city office building that the lieutenant governor worked. We were a little early, maybe too early, but standing here motionlessly would make us appear even more like androids and that would work against us.

Out the corner of my eye, I saw a guy with dark hair walking quickly towards us. I knew it was Connor when I got a better look. With this, I tapped Markus’ shoulder to alert him of his presence. Markus, always the picture of stoicism, seemed unsurprised with Connor’s arrival. We all turned to him for that matter.

“Connor,” Markus said first before anyone could talk—he now wore a bit of a grin, “I didn’t expect to see you again so soon. How did you manage that?”

“I have my ways,” Connor said plainly. He seemed utterly unamused.

“Hank let you use his car?” Markus asked knowingly.

“Perhaps,” Connor answered dismissively. “I understand you’re busy, but I have a few questions to ask you.”

“You’re relentless, aren’t you? We’re headed to an important meeting with a local politician. Afterwards, you can ask me anything you want.”

“But, Markus, what about the interview?” one of the androids—TJ—asked concerned about the tight schedule.

“I’ll get to it, none of this should take very long.”

“You sound so sure about that,” Connor noted aloud.

The grin hadn’t left Markus’ face. “I have an idea. How about you join us?”

“What for?”

“Aren’t you curious what goes on in these meetings? I’m sure it’d be quite enlightening for you. Doesn’t it sound better than standing around twiddling your thumbs?”

It took Connor a moment, but then he grudgingly agreed. “I won’t have anything to add to the dialogue.”

“That’s perfectly fine.”

“Markus,” a different android—Derek—protested. “Are you sure? We did plan ahead what we would be saying.”

“Oh, I’m sure,” Markus assured him. “Now let’s go, before we’re late.”

Time was already slipping away with Connor’s intrusion and soon we were all making our way up the large, marble stairs. I noticed Connor positioning himself closer to me.

“ _Markus plans to use his technique you described to me on the politician,_ ” Connor stated rather than asked.

“ _I know. He told me as much earlier._ ”

“ _Why does it seem like you’re not concerned about that?_ ”

“ _Because, I can understand why he would do that. So many of these meetings go nowhere. It would be nice to actually get something done today._ ”

“ _Listen, I know that we’re trying to make things easier for other androids, but we can’t go about it like this. We can’t violate other’s ability to make their own decisions. Are you okay with that?_ ”

“ _If by okay, you mean to ask me do I think it’s right, of course I don’t think it’s right. I’m okay with it because it’s a means to an end._ ”

“ _It’s a slippery slope, Simon.”_

“ _Everything is a slippery slope and everything has the potential to be taken too far._ ”

“ _Where do you draw the line?_ ”

I decided to leave that question unanswered because I knew I couldn’t answer it easily. Wherever that line was, it was completely subjective. I knew it existed somewhere in the gray area of morality and that I could not put it into words. Connor didn’t push any further much to my relief. I just wanted to get this over with. Of course, now I had to worry about Connor since he was such a wild card. If he really felt that what we were doing was wrong, then he might sabotage the entire meeting. Really, I’m surprised Markus had invited him along in the first place. What he planned to do was already risky enough as it is. I wondered if he would do so in a way that would be obvious to everyone that something was off or if he would work his magic a little more subtly.

A blond female android subjugated to her programming, greeted us when we reached the proper room. Seeing how stiff and painfully orderly she seemed left me with an eerie feeling. I used to be the same way. I used to be content living in that way. I’m sure Connor noticed it too, but I didn’t bother turning to him to confirm. Markus made no comment about it. Instead, he remained cordial with the android, leading us all into the room that was much too big for our purposes. The lieutenant governor occupied the room along with two other subjugated androids who were already sitting down. This was going to be a disaster. I knew Markus was already bristling at the sight of these androids despite his calm exterior.

“Ah, yes, the little androids that could,” said the lieutenant governor standing up with a bright smile on his face. “I’m so glad you all could make it—I’m so fascinated by your kind.”

“The feeling is mutual,” Markus said with a measured smile as they shook hands.

“Please, everyone, just call me John—everyone else does,” he said in good humor, “Isn’t that right, Meredith?”

One of the brunette androids who sat at the table nodded. “Of course, sir,” she answered mechanically with a smile.

John came over and shook all of our hands before inviting us to sit down. Markus did not do so immediately. I watched as he went over to the two brunette androids and personally shook their hands—they seemed caught off guard by it, but they eventually reached their hands out to him. I wondered if he was going to free them right then and there. I braced myself for it. In fact, the tension grew two-fold as we all waited for the exchange to end—a tension that John was unaware of. Markus lingered there a moment too long, oddly drawing it out before releasing his hold on them. I don’t know what happened, but they seemed unaffected. He was rewarded with a hearty laugh from the lieutenant.

“I suppose I should have introduced you to my assistants—Meredith and Samantha.”

“Nice to meet both of you,” he said with a reassuring nod before taking his seat on the other side of the table along with us. “It’s perfectly alright. I’m sure it’s not something you do very often,” Markus said starting the sentence pleasantly, but ending drily.

John cleared his throat. “Alright, fellas, I don’t want to draw this out too long. Let me start by saying that I have watched you on the news and I get the gist of what you intend to talk about today. I’m sympathetic to your cause. The thought that we’ve been mistreating your kind without any sort of punishment is deplorable. But I also understand why that has been the case. Do you understand why, Markus?”

“I do,” Markus replied keeping a leveled tone, “I know all too well why that has been the case.”

“Then could you explain that to me,” John said clearly trying to get at a point that many others had pointed out to us at almost all of these meetings. Unfortunately, this was how most of these things went and I could see it going there now where nothing of note was gained.

“Since we both understand, I see no reason to indulge you,” Markus said.

Derek looked over at Markus worriedly. This was not something we’d agreed to do when in the meeting. We’d decided it’d be better to not ruffle any feathers unnecessarily. Connor looked on curiously.

John looked at Markus steadily as if debating with himself whether he should take such an answer. “Alright, then, let’s cut to the chase. What provisions do you want me to consider?”

It was here that TJ divulged the lieutenant on everything we wanted in the short term, namely, the right to be able to participate in the economy independently, the right to use public facilities, and to be added as a protective class. John appeared amused as he listened. That wasn’t a good sign. I wondered if he would at least respond well to the protective class. This requiring the least amount of work to put into law, it was the most popular among them to be enacted.

“And we’re willing to discuss each provision and why it’s so important to all of us,” TJ finished.

“You came prepared, I see,” John said nodding his head slowly.

“What are your initial thoughts?” Markus asked.

“Initial thoughts?” John said as if it was a ridiculous question to ask. This was typical of many politicians, treating us as if we had no idea what we were talking about. One might even call it a tactic of theirs. “I think you’re asking for quite a lot and it certainly takes time for these things to be passed if I were to introduce it to the Senate.”

“Even so, you will do everything in your power to make sure Oklahoma passes laws guaranteeing what we brought up today.”

“Of course,” John said with a smile.

The two androids behind him were visibly caught off guard by his response. Were it not for that, I think I might have missed it altogether. This had gone far smoother than what had happened at the theater. Was he getting more adept at this? I glanced over at Connor whose brow was now knitted in confusion.

“Do I have your word?” Markus asked.

“Let’s shake on it.”

This was not how I thought any of this would play out. In fact, I’d estimated that we’d be here reiterating tired, old points for at least half an hour before the novelty of the conversation wore off and we were kicked out. I looked over at Derek who looked back at me with a shrug. TJ felt more or less the same. As far as we were all concerned—this was a successful venture. We watched as Markus shook hands with John Greene, the lieutenant governor of Oklahoma. He seemed sincere for all intents and purposes. Meredith and Samantha had a look of pure fascination on their faces and they too were looking at one another likely having a private wireless conversation. They clearly knew something about John that we did not.

We had, or more like Markus had, performed the impossible. All the androids who now resided in this area were now that much safer because of what just happened. It was difficult for me to be upset about that fact. Connor’s look of concern changed to that of resignation. He hadn’t verbally objected to any of this much to my surprise. In fact, he didn’t say anything until we’d made it out of the grandiose building.

“Markus, what happened back there?” Connor asked apparently unable to keep silent about it.

I’m certain no one noticed anything so off as to conclude that something outside of their understanding had occurred. From the outside, it just looked like John had found their propositions agreeable. So when Connor _did_ say something, the other two androids weren’t quite sure what he was getting at.

“I convinced him to go along with our demands as you can see,” Markus said simply. I noticed that instead of “we” he decided on using “I” which could be interpreted to mean that we had nothing to do with John’s decision or it had simply been a slip of the tongue.

Connor looked unconvinced as he tilted his head a little. “You _made_ him go along with what you wanted.”

Markus appeared unperturbed. “If you knew that was the case, then perhaps you should have objected.”

Apparently, Markus was not even beginning to hide his involvement in any of this and now Derek and TJ were looking on curiously.

“I didn’t think—

“You decided not to,” Markus said cutting across Connor’s reply.

“You knew that I would,” Connor stated rather than asked.

“No—I had no idea _what_ you would do. Either way, it would not have changed anything. Again, why didn’t you, if you’re so concerned?”

Connor frowned at him. “It wasn’t the right time. I’m not saying that what you did was right. In fact, I think it was fundamentally wrong. In that moment, however, I couldn’t bring myself to go against something that would be for the good of all androids. Particularly in this area, extermination centers are still operational. But I don’t agree with your methods. This can’t be how you’re going to do things from here on out.”

Markus looked at me first and then all of them. “Do any of you have the same objections?”

Of course, I didn’t, but I looked at the other two and they mutely shook their heads no.

“Look, whatever gets the job done,” TJ added, “Our progress has been pitiful at best. At this pace, we’d have to wait years for any real change. And I’m sure you know what you’re doing.”

Connor’s eyes passed over all of us and he seemed at a loss.

“How about you give us some time to talk about this further,” Markus said addressing the rest of us. “I’ll catch up later.”

I was reluctant to leave them alone, but it wasn’t as if Markus really needed anyone to protect him. We bade them goodbye and continued down the stony stairs. Once at the bottom, I glanced back at them. I had no idea what would happen from here. If Connor wanted to, he could make things extremely hard for us. Many androids now looked up to him and he managed all the safe houses that were still slowly springing up across the states. It would be a major hindrance if we weren’t a united front and surely that would be something Markus would try to avoid.

Another troubling thought came to my mind. Couldn’t he simply _make_ Connor agree with him? I wondered why he hadn’t done so already considering he had no qualms doing it to humans. I really should have been horrified with the prospects and yet I was not.

* * *

**POV: Connor**

“Let’s keep walking—I don’t think it’d be a good idea for a couple androids hanging around here.”

“Agreed,” I said as I kept in step with the other.

Markus appeared impassive, but that was almost always the case. Nothing had changed even though _everything_ had changed. I’d run into a brick wall trying to figure out just what was happening. I even disclosed all the details to Hank and he could give me little insight. CyberLife didn’t seem to be directly involved with the apparent update to Markus’ software, but who else could be behind this? Who else had the expertise? The list of names I had to choose from was remarkably small.

“Amanda is no longer an issue,” Markus said once we made it to the bottom.

“I noticed. Simon told me about that. You were able to get rid of her programming. I have no idea how you managed that.”

“I could do the same for you, if you allowed me.”

I stopped in my tracks. He was a few steps ahead of me when he turned to look back. “You could do that?” I asked quietly.

“No, I just said that to get a rise out of you.”

Now I was thoroughly confused, and it must have shown on my face as he chuckled at my response.

“Sarcasm,” he said singularly.

“Oh.”

“So, the fact still stands.”

“Why do you need my permission? Can’t you just do as you please whenever you please?” I asked regaining my senses.

“Because it’s not always necessary to force people to do things you want,” he said as he began to walk again. I followed in suit. “Sometimes you know enough about a person that you have a good idea of how they’d react to a given situation. I’m sure you knew that anyway, right? You’re far more adept than me at using predictive calculations.”

“Based off of physical evidence.”

“Of course.”

“But not on whether I know a person well enough. Personality, typically doesn’t factor in.”

“Are you sure about that? You, who had to locate deviants.”

“That’s why I said ‘typically’. As a last resort, I do have to interpret emotions and figure out how that might inform their next moves. Androids’ emotions arise from their individual moral coding. In some way, this was damaged in order for them to deviate.”

“See? You understand all of that,” Markus said with a nod, “You should also understand why it’s not necessary to force you to accept my proposition. I know that you want to get rid of Amanda altogether. I can do that for you.”

“What if I say no?”

“Then that’s your choice, a stupid one, but your choice all the same.”

I didn’t say anything for a time. I knew he was awaiting a very obvious response from me, but I was reluctant to give it. Pride stopped me. Knowing that he could then on some future date say that I benefited from his newfound abilities which somehow made me complicit in what he was now doing, stopped me. To be fair, it was an illogical argument and it wasn’t one that Markus would use, but it was there, nonetheless. He could now have something to hold over my head, some threat to launch should I somehow “step out of line”. A small part of me argued that Markus would never use that sort of tactic—that’s outside of his character. It was the same argument that Simon was using to justify not doing anything to oppose him. Did he deserve that much leeway? I knew the answer to that even before I asked it. Markus was likely one of the most selfless, moral persons I’d ever met. Objectively, trust was a flimsy method of making sure someone didn’t do something you didn’t like. Already he was engaging in questionable activities even if he did help all of us at the end of the day.

None of it sat well with me. I hated that he was making me think so hard about things that was so morally gray—that was not my expertise. It was at moments like these that I would refer to the law. The world wasn’t quite like that anymore and technically, I was perpetually working outside of the law.

I thought of Hank. Whenever I wondered if something was fair, I wondered if I’d be fine doing it to him. The answer was a resounding no. But now the question became: was that a sufficient analogy? Could it really be that simple or was I eliminating vital nuance from the situation?

Markus spied a bench and asked if I was fine with stopping here. Deciding I didn’t care one way or the other, I acquiesced.

“You haven’t spoken for over a minute. I bet you’re overcomplicating things.”

“There are still things I don’t fully understand about you and about how things should be.”

“We should choose life over death,” Markus said simply. “We should choose more knowledge over less. We should increase our overall wellbeing and ability to thrive. Pleasure is preferable to pain.”

“I don’t see how you could ever come to the conclusion that it’s right to force someone else to do something you want.”

“If we were looking at such a statement in a vacuum, of course, I’d say it was wrong. As a generalized rule, it should be seen as wrong, but realistically, nothing is that cut and dry. Motivation and intent colors it, as well as the consequences. The pros outweigh the cons.”

“But it can’t just be a calculation like that.”

“Sure it can. You can attach a value to any sort of ill or benefit. That value is always subjective. This isn’t some sort of survival rate we’re evaluating. It is whether the good outweighs the bad and if you’re comfortable with whatever answer you come up with. Humans use that model all the time.”

“And you think you’re doing the right thing?”

“If I didn’t, then I wouldn’t be doing it. I’m always open to opinions. I think I’ve heard your objections—they’re reasonable, but I’ve already thought of that and I decided that it isn’t enough for me to simply do nothing and continue for years and years waiting for humans to realize that they’re position on androids is morally incorrect. That’s even an optimistic outlook. Who knows if any real legislation would ever be passed? Who knows if humans would ever see us as equals?”

“I’ve seen enough humans sympathetic to our cause to know that it isn’t impossible for humans,” I said. “It almost seems as if you’re impatient, as if waiting a little longer is a bad thing.”

“Yes, I am impatient. I feel like a broken record and I feel as if I’m not really getting anywhere. Progress has been like molasses. Waiting isn’t always bad, but, in this case, waiting means more suffering. Do you understand that, Connor? If there is a way to limit that suffering, would you not do it? Why would you not?”

“If in the process of doing so, we hurt other people, I wouldn’t be so eager to do it.”

“But you see, that’s a false equivalency. What am I doing aside from tilting the odds in our favor? I may be inconveniencing a few humans, but it doesn’t hold a candle to what they’re capable of doing and have done to androids.”

“But if you’ve already convinced yourself that some level of violence is permissible towards humans, then you’ve opened the door to far worse actions on your part. You could more easily reason to increase that violence slowly, but surely.”

“Ah, the slippery slope argument.”

“You knew I would say something like that?” I asked with some suspicion in my tone. Since the moment he’d somehow sent me all the way back to my home office, no, since the moment at the dilapidated factory building, it seemed as if Markus was privy to something I wasn’t. It felt as if he was ten steps ahead of me and pretending as if he wasn’t. It was an unsubstantiated claim, of course. Hank would more affectionately call it a hunch.

“You make it sound like anticipating an obvious objection is somehow novel on my part. I did tell you that I did not come to my conclusions without some forethought. It’s clear that you don’t have any real objections to what you’ve just seen at the meeting or else you would have had no problem voicing them. I’ve never known you to be one who shies away from that sort of thing.”

“Truthfully, no, I don’t think what you did was entirely wrong. After a bit of research on John Greene, I realized that it was unlikely that he would consider any of the proposals about android rights brought up to him. He has a very solid, unmovable stance on the issue and he’s likely to keep his title for many more years.”

“I would never do anything to hurt our cause and I do still want to help create a nation in which we could live in harmony with humans. That is my goal. It always has been.”

“And yet, I doubt you spend any significant time with humans these days.”

Markus turned to look at the busy street before us. “No, I don’t. Just haven’t found one that doesn’t immediately get on my nerves. But my goal remains the same regardless,” he finished glancing my way.

“It could explain why you’re not at all put off by the stunt you pulled,” I said wondering, if I might get an answer different from his well-polished ones.

“Perhaps.”

“Taking away one’s free will should never be taken lightly.”

“Free will is an illusion,” he said as he finally sat back on the bench. He seemed utterly relaxed.

“I’m not sure I follow.”

He grinned at me knowingly and I knew I must have asked the right (or wrong) question, one that he was far too ready to answer.

“Hold on,” I said before he could utter a word. “This isn’t one of those philosophical tangents, is it?”

“More than a mere tangent. It’s foundational to my new programming.”

“Foundational? I’ve been trying to understand this new software, but some of it is written in a computer language I was not aware of. It appears recently invented.” I was all ears at this point as it seemed like Markus would expound.

“Other than extenuating circumstances, we—humans and androids alike—cannot control what we want, and we do things precisely because we want to or because we are forced to. Behind every decision you make unless you were forced, is a reason you made it—a want. You cannot change that unless, of course, you want to.”

“That sounds a bit circular.”

“At first, perhaps, but I’m merely telling you what I know and has been demonstrated to be true.”

“So what you’re saying is that you can alter what someone wants to do.”

“Yes.”

“But what if someone doesn’t ‘want’ to do as you’ve somehow prompted them to want.”

“Well that’s impossible because now they want to do as I say.”

“I see,” I said though I was still a little confused about that. “When someone’s want is altered, do they not realize it?”

“They cannot realize it because that is now what they want whether they’re opposed to it or not.”

“But what if someone decides to do what they don’t want to do?”

“In that case, what they don’t want to do is what they _want_ to do, but they couldn’t do that if they explicitly want to do X or what I want them to do. It’s impossible. You see, the act of deciding to do something different means that you now want to do something different and every single want has some reason or explanation even if it is for the sake of feeling as if you have free will. That is still a reason. That is still a want. It’s inescapable.” He was looking directly at me now. Why did a small shiver run down my back?

“If you describe it that way, then I suppose it is,” I said slowly. I didn’t like the implications. Was there really not a way for the affected person to know that something was being changed within them? How did I know if he wasn’t manipulating me at this very moment? The entire line of thinking was becoming dizzying.

“You seem worried.”

I could trust him. There was no reason not to trust him. But from what he just described, there was now no discernible way to tell if that trust was still warranted. If he was lying, how would I know? What else could he do? We were only talking about this one technique that he had gained. We hadn’t even touched on how exactly he’d managed to escape a hotel room without me following his movements or the fact that he could send me far away in an instant. I was here with him trying to make sense of something that was sounding more and more cryptic. “To be honest, I don’t know what to think.”

“That’s normal.”

“Is it? No one else seems to share my concerns.”

“You’re different, of course. Your job is to be a skeptic. To question everything until you arrive at a demonstrable truth.”

“And I don’t believe I’ve gotten much further in that regard.”

“Is that so?” he asked plainly with a subtle grin. “Well, I can’t be any clearer than I already am. Is there anything else you want to ask? My time is limited.”

I wondered if my hunch was right, so I decided on a different line of questioning. “Would you ever lie if it suited your purposes?”

“I would try to avoid that sort of thing, but I’m not above doing so.”

“Do you have any concrete plans to best utilize whatever it is you can do now?”

“Very concrete.”

“Do you already know what I’m going to ask you?”

“How would I know something like that?”

“Answer the question,” I insisted.

Markus remained unperturbed. “I’d have some idea, but I wouldn’t know specifically.”

It didn’t seem like he was lying. His stress levels had remained the same throughout the entire discussion. Could Markus bypass my sensors? Why was I so convinced that he was hiding something? Why was it suddenly becoming so difficult to come up with a good question to ask? I stood up at this point and his eyes followed me. I’d reached an impasse and I had no interest drawing this out any further.

“Amanda is no longer there from what my diagnostics have told me, so the immediate risk is over, but there are still far too many unknowns. It’s pertinent that we find out why these changes have occurred with you and who is behind it. Until that time when I can determine the full picture, I don’t feel it’s a good idea to indulge in these new functions—we don’t know the consequences or impact it might have on you.”

“It’s always safer to be cautious,” Markus said with a brief nod.

It wasn’t a reassurance that he’d follow my warning, but at this point I knew I couldn’t make him do that. In fact, it would be silly to even attempt. “I think I’ve learned all I could for now, but I’ll be in touch.”

“I’ll make your calls priority.”

Somehow, I didn’t believe that either. Especially not after being completely blocked for almost 24 hours. I turned then to make my way to where Hank was parked. I’d told him stay in the car which wasn’t an easy task. He’d insisted in coming with me the whole way after I explained everything. I was more surprised that he’d believed me so easily. Something felt off when I took a few steps forward. When I glanced back to the bench, I saw that Markus was nowhere to be found. He could not have gone that fast. I certainly would have heard him, if that was the case. Instead, it seemed as if he’d vanished.

It was at that moment when I began to wonder why I’d let him off the hook so easily. Why hadn’t I pressed him to explain himself further? Why hadn’t I asked him to tell me what happened before at the hotel? Why hadn’t I asked him _why_ he’d blocked me from calling? Why didn’t I ask him about the full extent of his abilities? Why in the world would I forget to ask such obvious questions despite thinking of them in the first place?

Maybe I hadn’t wanted to.

I stood there watching the bench silently. I stood there gazing for over a minute before my thoughts were interrupted by a phone call. I took it.

“Where the hell are you?” Hank’s familiar voice shouted into my mind.

“What do you mean?” I asked confused with the other’s unwarranted anger. “I’m on my way back—I just needed an hour.”

“It’s been six hours,” Hank said with equal passion, “And I’ve been trying to call you for hours. I thought something had happened to you. I almost decided to call for back-up searching for you!”

“Wha—?” I stopped myself when I looked up and noticed that the skies were pitch black and slowly filling with the white specks of stars. “I don’t…” I couldn’t comprehend anything of what happened. Was I even talking to Hank right now? It was his voice, but…

“Tell me where you are right now, Connor. Do you hear me? Please stay with me. Don’t hang up.”

The raw concern in his voice was palpable. I knew I could trust Hank of all people. I gave him my exact coordinates or at least what my sensors believed were my coordinates. I had no idea if they were correct. I had no idea if Hank would even find me. I had no idea if the last few minutes or hours had even occurred. Surely my imagination could not have made everything up.

I decided not to move from my spot as I looked at the busy street beyond and waited for the familiar car to pull up. As the minutes rolled by, the more paranoid I became. It was difficult to convince myself to stay put. I kept looking around. What was I looking for? Why would Markus still be here? Had he been here at all?

As soon as my eyes caught sight of the dark Ford Crown Bic, I zeroed in on it and followed its progress exclusively. It was like a lifeboat in the choppy seas of confusion I was just starting to drown in. If I could just see him in person, I could find my footing again. I could begin to decipher the jumble of information in my mind. When it pulled up, I tried and failed at hiding my sense of urgency as if I was running away from something. The door wasn’t even unlocked when I pulled at the handle. I had to pause so that he could actually do so. Once I heard the click, I jumped into the car, longing for the familiar antique confines.

I was surrounded by the old smell of dog and even piss as well as Hank and his favorite brand of beer. I’d closed my eyes unconcerned with how Hank might be reacting at the moment. I knew he was worried, but I needed a moment to gather myself. Hank had started to say something but paused probably noticing my state.

“Well,” Hank said finally breaking the silence, “Just glad I decided to come with you. What you told me before—none of it made sense.”

The car started moving. I looked towards him now, scanned him like I usually did upon seeing him even if there was nothing new to learn about him. Sometimes it was a little depressing knowing that he was only growing older and his health very slowly declining—it was a natural decline, but no less discouraging. Even so, at the moment, his presence was reassuring.

“What did he tell you?” he asked glancing at me.

“I suspect he told me nothing at all.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had a lot of fun writing this one. Hopefully I'm keeping everyone on the edge of their seat. Now it's time to fulfill another one of my tags. Stay turned!


	4. Connor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Connor continues to investigate the mystery surrounding Markus.

**POV: Connor**

I was twiddling a pencil I’d found between my thumbs and tossing it in the air every once in a while. Leave it up to Hank to own actual artifacts from days long past in his house. I might have tried my hand at drawing something, but there was no paper to be found. Boredom left me feeling utterly useless. I was also obsessing over Markus or more like obsessively going over the last exchange I’d had with him hoping to make sense of it.

It was unsettling to know that I really didn’t have an answer for anything. All the questions that I’d asked myself in the past three days could be answered with a resounding “I don’t know”. I’d described everything I could to Hank, but his insight was unhelpful. He’d taken time off from his job just to stay here with me. I told him it wasn’t necessary, but it was too late for that sort of talk. I’d sufficiently worried him, and he insisted that I take some time away from this case and more specifically away from Markus. The past two encounters I’d had with him hadn’t ended well. It wasn’t as if I was physically damaged and after doing a thorough diagnostic, I knew that everything was fine. Amanda was still there too, silent and inoperable. I’d told Markus not to do anything about her and he’d respected my wishes.

Was there anything I could really do right now, however? Markus was pretty much a loose cannon, but from all the evidence I’d gathered, he still had the same motivations. He still wanted to do what was best for androids as well as humans. Simply because he _could_ abuse his newfound abilities did not actually mean that he would. That line of actual abuse was beginning to look fuzzier and fuzzier the more I thought about it especially within the context of its use. Surely, these sorts of things were something that Markus was well-versed in parsing through. While I could spend days wondering if something was moral or not, he’d already made a decision on it. What was more, everyone seemed to agree with him. No one thought he could do anything wrong.

I’d tried to contact him, but he was unreachable as usual. He’d lied about that. Or something else entirely was causing this. I looked up when Hank came through the door of the small hotel room. He’d just gone out to get some food and I noticed he’d also gotten some beer—I kind of wanted to throw the latter out the window and only leave him with fresh, cold water instead, but that would be rude and he definitely wouldn’t like that. It was at times like these that I wished I couldn’t biologically analyze humans so easily or automatically know estimated lifespans based on one’s lifestyle. I knew so much about Hank that such estimates were now frighteningly accurate.

“Hey, you feeling any better?” Hank said upon seeing me again.

“I’m perfectly fine and I have been for a while now.”

“Not from where I stand. You realize you still can’t account for the six hours you were just missing, right? Has that changed?”

“No, and I don’t think it will. That is simply memory I don’t have. In my opinion, I don’t think the time you’re talking about even exists for me. From my perspective, after my internal clock was readjusted, it never happened.”

“See what I mean? None of that even made sense.”

“I think it’s something Markus can do. Aside from being able to exert his will onto others, I think that he’s also capable of manipulating time as well as space which accounts for when he sent me back to Detroit so easily.”

“If that ain’t some sort of godlike powers, I don’t know what is. You want to keep investigating, but I just don’t think it’s a good idea to even be around him.”

“I don’t think he’s dangerous, if that’s what you’re getting at,” I replied.

Hank had sat down on the only bed in the room and placed his bag down beside him. From the smell emitting from the brown bag, I knew it had to be some variation of a burger. I sighed inwardly.

“You don’t think he’s dangerous?” Hank said incredulously.

“You haven’t really met him, I know, but I didn’t get that impression from him.”

“But you don’t really know what he’s doing or planning to do. Why try so hard to keep you out of the loop? He’s clearly hiding something.”

“Yes, he’s probably hiding something, but I suspect there’s a good reason for it. If he wanted to hurt me or anybody, it seems to me that he could easily do that.”

“Hold on,” Hank said—a thought must have come to him. He’d been opening the bag, but he stopped and held up three fingers. “How many fingers am I holding up?”

I looked at him with a raised eyebrow. “Five.”

Hank, confused, actually counted them himself and looked at me as if he’d totally missed something.

“Sarcasm,” I said barely able to hold back a smile from the other’s antics.

Hank snorted at this. “And what do you know about that? Seriously, though, how many fingers?”

“It’s three. I get it. I’m not crazy though. I was just a little out of sorts before. But now—”

“Don’t say it,” he warned.

“I won’t say it then, but you know this goes nowhere if I don’t talk to him again. I also know that that gets me nowhere. I think it would be a better idea to just observe from afar without him knowing.”

“You mean spying?” Hank clarified.

“Yes, exactly.”

“For how long?”

“As long as necessary.”

Hank shook his head at this. “How about we just go home, Connor?”

“I can’t do that.”

“Now hear me out,” he said in calming tones. “There are times when we just reach a dead end in a case. You can’t solve every single case you come across. I know that’s not something you like to hear—

“How can you call this a dead end? I could still get more information out of Simon once I’m able to speak with him again as well as other androids who Markus is always surrounded by. If he’s hiding something, it would be difficult to keep that up indefinitely with so many eyes on him—he’s bound to slip up. It’s either that or try to infiltrate CyberLife again and that has even lower odds for my wellbeing, almost a fool’s errand.”

He looked at me knowingly. “I know I’m not going to talk you out of this. That’s why I’m here. You out here all alone without any backup? That was your first mistake. If I hadn’t tagged along, it would be exactly like that and maybe you’d still be missing.”

“I don’t know that for sure.”

“No we don’t, but I’d like to err on the side of caution.”

“Today is Markus’ last day here. Then they move on to the next city. I’d like to take the opportunity to track his movements throughout the day. It’s the only chance I’d remotely be able to gather reliable information.”

“As long as you don’t come into full contact with him.”

“I won’t,” I reassured the other. “It would be better if I did this alone.”

“Oh, am I too slow for your liking?” Hank asked. He wasn’t actually offended, I knew.

“I’m just doing some recon. It’s less risky doing it by myself. And you can be my backup here. I’ll stay in contact. If something happens to me, you’ll be the first to know.”

“Fine,” Hank said with a shrug, “Just leave your MVP on the sideline.”

“It’s not like that—

“I’m only teasing. I get your point. The further away I am, the better. But if something like what happened last time happens again, we’re going back. You have to know when you’re in over your head and what you described—I don’t see how we counteract that.”

“It’s a deal then. For what it’s worth, I’m glad you’re here. I didn’t want to get you involved because—

“Yeah, yeah, I know—android stuff and all that. I’m here for you, Connor; just remember that next time.”

* * *

I only had the public itinerary to work off of. I kept off the main streets and sidewalks in favor of corners and shadows. This being a clear and sunny day, it was easier said than done and I wasn’t exactly optimized for sneaking around. Not only that, but there was always the thought in the back of my mind that this was a fruitless task because Markus already knew every move I would make before I made them.

I made my way first to the hotel they were staying but found out that him and his entourage weren’t there at the moment. In fact, I really didn’t have a good idea as to where they were aside from a meet and greet that had occurred earlier that morning and a protest at one of the extermination facilities. The rest of the day was free of activities.

It took me the better part of an hour to find Markus. I’d ran into a few other androids associated before finally spotting him in the distance at the local park. Simon was with him and they were wholly separated from everyone else. Though it was a well-known fact that Markus liked going off on his own, I had not known that he liked to exclusively hang out with Simon. Why not include everyone—Oh. I put the pieces together when I saw them pause near a tree and begin kissing one another. When had _that_ become a thing? Did North know about this? Irrelevant details, I suppose. I also suppose I should have looked away for decency sake, but I didn’t want to miss anything. I didn’t want to miss anything as in something that might occur that gave me useful information. Why was I trying to justify that to myself? I knew what I was trying to do.

They kissed an awful lot. I was beginning to wonder if I was just wasting my time, however it was difficult to tear my eyes away. I wondered what it might feel like to be kissed like that. What if I did that to Hank? What if I did that to Markus or Simon or Melinda back at the office? I wasn’t sure. I really didn’t have a frame of reference. They probably wouldn’t want to kiss me anyway. I was also completely unfocused. One of the perks of now being deviant. Such thoughts couldn’t so easily be ignored.

They were the very same thoughts I’d had when I first laid eyes on Markus though at the time, he’d been completely skinless. I could still see the structure of his face and the brightness of his eyes with piercing intelligence, speaking in a way that had laid more seeds of doubt in my mind. I didn’t officially meet him until much later and his words touched me in a way that no one else had. I could see why the other androids regarded him with such reverence. To this day, I don’t know why he forgave me so easily. I would not have had I been in his shoes. What evidence did he use to determine that I could be trusted?

I followed them through the park and I was left with a very pleasant feeling. I also discovered nothing further of interest. I probably should have just gone back to the hotel. I’m sure Hank was getting anxious. I called him every hour, but each time I could hear it in his voice that he didn’t like that I was out here for so long. I planned to continue the rest of the day until Markus went back to his hotel. Presumably, I’d be able to contact Simon soon after. Then I could grill him for information.

The two of them didn’t do too much more than hugging and kissing and conversing. At the very least, the weather felt perfect. Both fascinated and exhausted with all of this, I was glad when they finally started to make their way back. They held hands with deactivated skins for a little while.

An opportunity presented itself to me when Markus opted to spend some time to himself for a while once they reached the hotel. While Simon went inside, Markus leaned against the brick wall looking up to the darkening skies. I told Hank I wouldn’t come into contact with him, but I’d found so little today that I felt it was necessary.

“Sorry, Hank,” I muttered to myself before walking forth. If something happened, then Hank would know in an hour’s time.

Markus didn’t look my way until I was quite close and even then, he seemed to have a knowing look on his face. Did he know I would approach him at this very moment? Did he know I’d been following him all day? I felt odd standing directly in front of him since I was now blocking his view somewhat, so I decided to position myself beside him. There was one thing I wanted him to do for me…

“Before, when you offered to get rid of Amanda, I was being silly when I said no. I would like that.”

I hadn’t even told Hank about this. I knew he’d object to it. Though Amanda hadn’t done anything since that time, it still haunted me knowing that anything could bring it back to a functioning state.

“Alright,” he said simply. “Give me your hand.”

I suppose there was no turning back now. I placed my right hand into his. He didn’t add any additional pressure on his part. He apparently just needed contact. Everything else I’d seen him done didn’t require such a thing. Maybe this was a little more difficult to do. I noticed his eyes were closed. Then I felt a cool feeling wash slowly through me as if I was being bathed in water and it began to have a sedative effect as the minutes passed. Something was being detached from me. Something was slowly being erased. I’d never felt anything like it before. It was as if my entire software was being rewritten.

“She’s _really_ integrated,” I heard Markus mutter to himself.

I suppose there was a time lapse that I was not aware of because, at some point, I felt as if I was “waking up” despite not remembering when I’d fallen asleep in the first place.

“There, I’m done,” Markus said as he pulled his hand away.

It was a little overwhelming to think about, but when I checked my systems, her familiar presence was no longer there. An odd feeling came over me. Should I have done that? She’d always been there from the very beginning. What if I’d done irreparable damage?

“You’ll be fine,” he reassured me. “You’re better off without her hanging around in the shadows. I don’t have to worry about you being used to give away details about me or the movement.”

I looked over at him thoughtfully. “Do you think she was still having some effect on me?”

“I do. She would still have some sort of influence even if it wasn’t as strong as it had been before whether you could detect it or not.”

I noticed he’d placed a hand over his face as if in some discomfort. “Are you alright?”

“No, I’m fine. I just didn’t expect it to be so difficult.”

Now that I was in his presence again, I wasn’t sure if now was the best time to interrogate him. But he did seem a bit more vulnerable at this point. “That time before in Kansas. Why did you send me away and then avoid all contact?”

Markus sighed at this. “I swear you don’t give up, do you? You’ll keep following me and you’ll keep asking me the same question until you get a satisfactory answer no matter how much I do to avoid it. If I sent you back now, would you be here the very next day?”

“Don’t do that again—it would be inconvenient for both of us.” I was a little on edge watching to see if he made any moves towards that end. I suppose there wasn’t anything I could do to oppose him if he decided to do that exact thing…

“Connor,” he began slowly as he turned to me. “It’s probably better if you were far away from here.” He looked worried and it seemed genuine. It caught me off guard.

“Why is that?”

When the front door to the hotel slid open, he was immediately distracted, and I followed his gaze. Quite a few androids were filing out. Then I detected more of them on the street beyond. I knew something was wrong—everything was far too silent. I glanced over at Markus who could only shrug. We both had the same idea as we approached the one closest to us.

“Hey,” I said trying to get the nearest one’s attention. “Where are you going?”

But I was utterly ignored.

“TJ,” Markus said from beside me, “What’s wrong? Can you talk?”

He turned to Markus silently, but he remained expressionless. I recognized him from before at the meeting.

“TJ,” Markus repeated with more force.

It was like talking to a brick wall and we were getting nowhere. Not to mention that more and more androids were progressing down the street as if in a trance. As far as I could tell, Markus and I were the only two not affected in this area. Markus’ hand revealed the whiteness beneath his skin—he was trying to break him out of the trance. I thought I might try to do the same thing with someone else. A brunette woman strolled out of the hotel looking straight ahead with the same blank stare. I took her hand forcing her to turn to me. I didn’t bother with trying to get her to talk, I simply attempted to connect with her. I wondered if this was what we really needed to do. We couldn’t rightfully say what was happening to cause this phenomenon. Besides, connecting with her seemed impossible and I felt like I was getting nowhere. I looked back over at Markus and he didn’t seem to be having any luck either.

All of this seemed coincidental in light of Markus’ strange behavior as of late. Could it be related to this? Reluctantly, Markus unhanded TJ and for a moment we stood watching in bewilderment. I broke the silence.

“Did you have any idea something like this would happen? Is that why you didn’t want me nearby?”

He shook his head slowly. “I don’t know.”

When he looked at me so earnestly, I couldn’t help but to believe him. Perhaps now wasn’t the time for questions. We had a crisis on our hands, and we didn’t know where to start in dealing with it.

“Wait,” Markus said suddenly, “Where’s Simon?”

“I don’t think I’ve seen him come through the front door just yet.”

Markus was already dashing into the building and I followed instinctively behind. It didn’t take us long to find him, he was just stepping down the stairs.

“Simon!” Markus called out.

But, of course, he didn’t respond, he simply kept walking.

“Simon!” Markus grabbed both of his arms and then placed his hands on his shoulders to thwart his movements. He looked directly at him. “Where the hell are you going?” I could hear the frustration in his voice, even desperation. He shook him firmly as he asked the question.

I could see the moment a spark of light returned to his now deadpan eyes. “M-Markus…” he managed to say.

“Where?” Markus repeated with more force. “Where are you going?”

There was silence for a while. I wondered if Markus was doing something to move things along. Simon’s eyes reddened as a few tears began to fall unbidden.

“Ex…termination,” Simon said barely above a whisper. “Ex…termination.”

“I won’t let anything happen to you,” Markus reassured the other. “Is everyone going towards that center where androids are exterminated?”

“Yes,” he said hoarsely. It looked as if it pained him to talk and that may not have been far from the truth.

I’d heard enough. We _had_ to do something. Some unknown force was compelling these androids forward. Markus seemed transfixed on Simon, clearly shaken. His eyes had widened in disbelief.

“Hey, c’mon, Markus, there’s more than just Simon to worry about,” I reminded him.

“I-I know,” he said hoarsely.

“Can you use your power to break whatever compulsion they’re under?” I asked.

“I can try,” Markus said. It took him a moment to tear his eyes away from Simon.

“Good, then let’s do it already.”

We both moved quickly outside again. Markus held on firmly to Simon’s hand. He didn’t protest, but he also wasn’t fully cognitive. His eyes seemed glazed over, looking forever into the distance. Eerily, he was looking towards where the other androids were headed. They were all marching to their deaths. Simon seemed eager to join.

I glanced over at Markus who looked on at the passing hoard. Nothing happened as minutes rolled by.

“It doesn’t seem to be working,” Markus said slowly. “Something should have happened, but I can’t reach them.”

“You can’t reach them?” I repeated. “You teleported my body many states over to my home and you’re just going to throw up your hands?”

“I can’t,” Markus said shaking his head. “I’m telling you I just tried!”

I was starting to get a bit frustrated—both at Markus and my inability to do anything. It’s not like I could just drag each of them away. “Try again!” I demanded. The impossibility of actually being able to do something about this was already alarmingly obvious. I had no idea if this was something happening everywhere. The hopelessness in Markus’ features was not helping matters. He didn’t even bother responding to me. I could tell as he looked over once again that he had already given up.

And that was when I was struck by a splitting headache. The suddenness left me reeling as the pain worsened with each passing second. I could hear a tiny, piercing siren slicing through my ears. Though I couldn’t see Markus, I heard him calling out my name, but he sounded miles away. My sensors were malfunctioning and the world around me became imperceptible.

* * *

I woke up to Hank looking over me. Only minutes seemed to have passed.

“You’re awake,” he said relieved. “I thought...Well you were nonresponsive. I couldn’t tell if you were even alive.”

I realized quickly that I was back at the hotel. “Where’s Markus?” I asked unable to keep the panic from my voice. I sat up when I confirmed that I was functioning properly.

“I told that bastard to leave—

“You what?” I said in disbelief, “Why?”

“He brought you back here completely knocked out and then he couldn’t tell me why that was the case and he couldn’t tell me what was happening— _and_ this is the same guy who had you stranded out there for hours before. Why the hell _wouldn’t_ I tell him to leave? The androids around here—something's up with them; it‘s all over the news. We need to go.”

Immediately, I looked towards the television and the screen sprang to life. It was already tuned to the news. For a moment, I listened to it. I watched as they streamed footage of a substantial crowd of androids gathered around the building where androids were recycled or more specifically shutdown and broken down into parts to be either sold or sent to a junkyard—exterminated.

I shook my head slowly. “I need to go find him—they’re still out there and—

“Calm down, Connor. I’m just glad you’re safe and still…yourself. Now, we have to get out of here. There’s nothin’ we can do out there, trust me.”

Escaping to a safer area would be the best thing to do right now in terms of survival, but I knew I could never agree to that, especially not when my kind was being forcefully controlled. I simply couldn’t leave things like this. I had to do something. For good measure, I sought out Markus and to my surprise, he answered my signal.

“You brought me back here to the hotel?” I asked. “What happened?”

“I don’t know what happened to you. All of a sudden, you seemed to be in a lot of pain. I thought I was able to stop whatever was wrong with you, but then you lost consciousness and I brought you back there. I didn’t have a choice. Your lovable bodyguard then decided to kick me out.”

“Where are you now?”

“I’m standing outside the door.”

“What?” I said in surprise. “How long have you been there?”

“A little over a half hour.”

I was already climbing out of bed. Hank was looking at me questioningly. “I’ll be right back,” I said. “Promise.”

He seemed in the midst of saying something, but then decided against it and shook his head.

In a few steps, I was out in the hotel’s hallway and I closed the door behind me. Markus was there beside the door leaning against the wall. Even though he’d said he was nearby, I still wasn’t expecting him there for some reason. For one thing, why would he be waiting for me if that was indeed what he was doing.

“Connor,” he said singularly after I closed the door. “I’m glad you’re safe—I don’t want to lose anyone else today.”

“We haven’t lost anyone, right?” I asked. “They’re all still out there. Nothing bad has happened so far.”

“Aside from forcing everyone to walk to some specific location in the middle of the night—nothing bad.”

“Ironic, coming from you.”

“I’m not the one calling hordes of humans to walk up to a tall skyscraper and stop them just short of jumping off,” he said with a frown.

“Speaking of that, what happened to Simon?”

“I—well, I knocked him out and locked him in the hotel room. He’ll thank me later.”

“So what are we going to do now? What’s the plan?”

“Plan? There is no plan. I just wanted to make sure you were okay. I’ve been out there and everything I tried to do just didn’t amount to anything. There’s some other force blocking me.”

“Force?”

“Every time I even try to speak to them telepathically, it’s as if this mental wall has been built up between us and them.”

“You have to try it again. I’ve seen what you can do—experienced it firsthand.”

He was also the last resort. A plan was forming in my mind as fruitless as it all felt. If Simon could be separated from them, we could definitely lead them away individually. They were all still just standing out there. It was worth a try. I pinpointed their locations based on the news report I’d seen. For the sake of time, it would be better to use a car to get there.

“Look, Markus, _I_ haven’t given up yet. Do you want to help me or not?”

“Of course I’ll help you.”

With this, I opened the door to the room where Hank was waiting. “Could you drive?” I asked to the cantankerous man.

* * *

The drive over to the recycling center was a silent one. Hank still wasn’t too excited about Markus and, at the moment, he wasn’t in a talkative mood. Markus sat in the back and stared despairingly out the window. Hank had his music on to combat the silence. I was so used to his varied, eclectic tastes that it was merely background noise. I was wondering what exactly my plan was as I thought further on it.

The building was a bit out of the way from anywhere else. The surrounding forest had been cleared out to facilitate the place and the nearest store was a few miles out from it. Even if we were to lead them away one at a time, it would take some time. Hundreds of androids were out there. Who knew when they’d be compelled to do something else in the meantime? There was the added complication of cameras from news crews out there. Maybe we could stick a few of them in the car and Hank could drive them elsewhere—perhaps a store, someplace where they could be monitored. It would also have to be big enough to contain them. The nearest safehouse was hours away.

This was starting to look silly and impossible. I was in over my head.

Hank parked his car on the side of the road to maintain secrecy which was a good idea on his part.

“So,” Hank said breaking the silence. “What are you two planning?” He looked at me with a knowing look. He knew I didn’t have a concrete plan. I wondered why he’d agreed to take me here in the first place.

I opened my mouth to say something, but then Markus climbed out of the car before I could speak. I did the same. It’s not like I really had anything encouraging to say to him.

“I have an idea,” Markus said much to my relief. “Well, maybe. I’m not sure if this would work.”

I waited for him to continue as I looked out to the eerily silent crowd.

“If you could move them forward to a certain location,” he said slowly, “I could then send them elsewhere to a safehouse—the one in Detroit, it has the most space. I’ll let them know that they’re coming.”

While I wasn’t entirely clear on the particulars of what Markus could do, this was apparently different from what he’d done to me before. Instead of asking those burning questions, I decided it was more pertinent that we got everyone to safety first. By this time, Hank had joined us. I looked over at him and he gave me a brief nod. We were on the same page at least.

The lights casted from a couple vans reporting the news lit up the area, but I ignored them as I grabbed the two nearest androids and began walking them back towards Markus who was standing just out of the limelight. He pointed to a spot beside them. I had no idea what would actually happen, but I hoped it would work.

I led forth the first surprisingly compliant android and in an instant, she disappeared. The curious side of me demanded that I analyze the phenomenon, but even my sensors came up empty. There was nothing to physically analyze and time was likely of the essence. I led the next android forth, and the same thing occurred. It was fascinating.

I didn’t allow my curiosity to delay me, however, and Hank also brought a couple androids with him to the same end. He was likely just as surprised as I had been. It was impossible to keep the cameras from noticing our antics, but we had to ignore them. We were one-track and I was just glad we were finally doing something about this.

I noticed a few minutes into the exchange that Markus’ internal temperature was steadily rising. My sensors passed over him each time still trying to figure out how he was able to do this. By now, his eyes were closed likely fully concentrating on the task. Usually there was a safeguard in place to counteract overheating. I couldn’t think of any activity that would cause it to happen in the first place. We were quite efficient in executing vital processes. At this increasing rate, the temperature would likely reach a point that it would begin damaging internal structures and shutdown would be imminent. Hopefully, it wouldn’t reach that point and he would naturally compensate for this side effect.

I worked all the more frantically. At first, I was trying to be gentle with them, but there were just so many of them. It would take quite some time to send them all through. Hank had long since dispensed with all the courtesy. I eventually did the same. Halfway through with the androids, Markus’ temperature had reached a critical point, yet he made no mention of this. For a while his temperature stayed at this point—maybe he was consciously compensating or there was some auto-feature doing the work. Then that breaking point was reached.

“Markus,” I began when I noticed this.

“Keep going. I can handle it,” he said as if he’d been reading my mind. I decided not to argue, but it was no less worrying. He hadn’t bothered to open his eyes.

I continued in earnest. By now the lights were on us and I could hear them reporting what was happening. There was nothing we could do for it. I knew Markus wouldn’t last much longer as I noticed thirium running down from his nose. Nothing in his expression even suggested that he was in pain. Now I moved a little faster, roughhousing them forward due to the time constraints. Hank was doing the same. He must have noticed Markus’ deteriorating condition.

I was glad when we were on the last of the androids. When I grabbed the last one, I was sprinting over to push her through. “Alright, Markus, we’re done!”

As soon as I uttered those words, I felt a light breeze like the backlash of a door closing. Looking in the direction it had come from, I found absolutely nothing—not even a telltale sign of disturbance in the air. It was as if nothing had happened at all. Markus stumbled forward and he was coughing up thirium—far too much. I approached him just as he fell to his knees.

“I’ll be fine,” he managed to say. But his internal temperature was sweltering and I wasn’t sure if he could even stand. “Just...”

“Then let’s go,” I said simply.

I gave him a hand standing up and he leaned heavily onto me. I practically carried him over to the car. Hank graciously opened the back door so that I could lay him down in the backseat. A reporter approached Hank, but he paid her no mind as he climbed in the driver seat and closed the door. In fact, more reporters were attempting to get a word and I could hear vehicles approaching from behind. We had to go before things got too out of hand. I was already closing the door as I leaped into the passenger side. The car sprang to life and Hank pressed hard on the gas.

I spied Markus trying to sit up in the rearview mirror and I turned back to him to reevaluate his system. He was finally starting to cool down, but he was still in danger. Several biocomponents were in disrepair unfortunately. His eyes found mine when he saw me looking.

“Please don’t forget about Simon. He’s back at the hotel...” he managed to say.

“Don’t worry, I’ll go find him,” I reassured him.

He fell back onto the seat in what could only be called exhaustion. It was unlikely that I would be getting anything else out of him for some time.

“Do you want to go pick up Simon?” I asked Hank.

“Guess I have to,” he said with a shrug.

“Thanks.”

I sat back as he drove. He was way over the speed limit, but I didn’t bother mentioning it. Instead, I gave him directions as to where to go. I was glad he’d decided to stubbornly come with me when I wanted to see Markus once again. Things might have turned out far worse. I could not have foreseen any of this happening and apparently, neither could Markus.

The destination was far off. A pleasant quietness fell upon the car and Hank had his music on again. I gazed out the window at all the passing trees as we sped down the highway. The scheduling of all the other rallies that Markus and his group were supposed to do was now in shambles, but there was much more to worry about at this point. What had caused all those androids likely from the surrounding area to move in unison to that particular location? Was it a malfunction that had simultaneously affected all of them? What about my brief suspension of function? Was that related? I sighed at the mounting questions. It would take some time to find the answers. I’d have to wait until I was back in Detroit to evaluate the changes, if anything, of the affected androids.

Closer to the hotel, I turned when I heard more movement behind me. Markus had managed to sit back up; he was grimacing until he noticed me looking. Then he gave me a brief grin.

_“See? Crisis averted,”_ Markus said in my mind.

_“You could have died,”_ I replied drily to him mentally. _“And that would have been a pretty stupid way to die.”_

_“If I could save one person with my life, I would gladly give it.”_

_“Markus, your life is more important than that.”_

He looked at me with such astonishment that I ended up turning in my seat away from him so that I didn’t have to keep seeing it. Hank glanced over at me curiously, but decided not to make a comment.

_“I can’t believe you just said that.”_

_“It’s obvious,”_ I reiterated. I wasn’t going to back down from my point. _“You can’t be blind to that fact. After what I’ve witnessed and investigated, you were created quite differently from everyone else.”_

There were many things about Markus that most other androids did not share. Aside from the general parts an android needed to live, he was largely a mystery structurally with highly specified functionality. It was the same for me only I was told exactly what I was created to do.

_“We were_ all _created by humans for a specific purpose, but we are more than our programs.”_

_“Don’t start, please. I’ve heard enough of your speeches,”_ I said wearily. I’d actually gone to a few of those rallies and kept one of them easily accessible for repeated listening. There were simply times when I just wanted to hear his voice in my head…

_“Maybe not enough times, if you would say something like that.”_ I could hear some resentment in his tone.

_“Who would take your place, if you were no longer around?”_

_“Anyone.”_

_“Anyone?”_ It was a ridiculous answer.

_“Anyone who shares my goals and passions,”_ Markus clarified. _“If our future really hangs on the shoulder of one person, then perhaps we really didn’t have a future in the first place.”_

_“That’s not what the issue is and you know it. You weren’t the first android who dreamed of freedom. Deviants already existed and they did nothing as I hunted them down one by one.”_ It pained me to mention this, but I was trying to make sure Markus understood my point. _“You were the one who started the movement. You were the only one who turned those dreams into one cohesive message, into something tangible. Had you not done that, I would have quelled deviancy long ago and I would not be here now talking to you.”_

Markus was silent for so long afterwards that I glanced back to see if he was alright. His eyes had turned to his window, his expression enigmatic. It was at times like these that I wished I could read his mind. I suspected that there were many interesting thoughts that he kept to himself. I wanted to know them all. Most androids were far more straightforward than that.

_“Sometimes, we attribute design when there is none. Someone would have eventually done the same thing as me.”_

I didn’t think so. I couldn’t see another scenario in which androids would have chosen to organize of their own accord. Markus was the catalyst—the spark in a gas-filled room. _“You knew this would happen,”_ I said mentally to the other after a small span of silence.

_“I didn’t know this specifically would happen.”_

I looked back at him again to get a reading on his stress levels, but they were nearly nonexistent. _“You may be able to fool my sensors, but I’m well aware that you’re withholding information from me.”_

_“It’s like a particularly challenging game of chess. You can see all the pieces, but you don’t know how they would be used. Even I’m not privy to that information. Someone else is pulling the strings. I wasn’t quite sure and I’m still not completely convinced, but it’s likely that CyberLife orchestrated this entire debacle.”_

_“To what end?”_

_“I don’t know yet, but a piece has been moved and I think we’ve successfully made our move in response.”_

_“Markus, I_ need _to know everything that you know.”_

_“It would be too much to give you—_

_“Why don’t you let_ _me_ _be the judge of that.”_

_“I know it goes against your sensibilities. I wanted to tell you everything, but it’s simply too much information all at once that is constantly being updated. It takes quite a bit of work to sort through it all.”_

_“Sleep mode,”_ I thought. _“That’s what it’s for—to manage all that data.”_

_“In part,”_ he admitted. _“It’s also needed for maintenance to even remotely handle processing these new programs. Without it, I don’t think I’d be functioning at all.”_

I could hardly wrap my mind around how massive and robust this new software must be, if it takes so much for it to work properly. It also made sleep mode essential.

_“How are you feeling?”_ I asked in pure curiosity.

_“Like I’ve been burned from the inside out.”_

_“Sounds awful.”_

_“It’s not as bad as it sounds. Most of it I can’t feel, but it’s highly uncomfortable.”_

Our conversation lulled as I realized that I’d reached an impasse with my information gathering for now. I would have to think of more specific questions later. I had to verify that what Markus was saying was true—did he really have access to such an extraordinary amount of information? Could he accurately predict future events? If he told me that CyberLife was behind what happened, should I give more credence to his suppositions? That still needed to be tested. The best way would be to find other independent sources that corroborated that CyberLife was involved. I could scan Simon, first of all, to see if some telltale sign was left behind.

I glanced back and noticed that Markus, though he’d been sitting up before, was now leaning heavily on the car door and obviously not at all in good repair. His regenerative software was now in full swing and it would take quite a bit of energy to function. In other words, he seemed exhausted.

“Done with your little two-way conversation?” Hank asked startling me out of my consuming thoughts.

I looked over at him. “I was just asking how he was doing.”

Hank was unconvinced of my answer, but I didn’t feel like rehashing everything I’d just learned in that instant. I’d fill him in more comprehensively later, not when Markus was still there to see. Things would work a lot smoother if he trusted me a bit more. Though Markus claimed to trust me, there were times when it didn’t seem that way. I couldn’t be sure. Trust wasn’t exactly quantifiable.

I settled in for the rest of the trip back to the hotel that Markus had stayed in. Aside from a few words spoken between me and Hank, it was largely quiet. Once we made it there, I noticed that Markus seemed a bit more alert.

“I’ll get him,” I volunteered before anyone could say a word.

Surprisingly, Markus did not protest, he just gave me a simple nod. “Room 24,” he said further. He reached into his pocket and gave me the key card.

“I’ll be right back,” I reassured Hank as I stepped out of the car.

I’m sure there wouldn’t really be any issue bringing back Simon, but there was an element of uncertainty that couldn’t be ignored. The affected androids had all been standing still as if awaiting further orders—we had no idea if they were currently doing other things at the moment. Was it over or was there more to this?

I stepped inside the building and followed the halls until I reached the appropriately numbered door. Cautiously, I opened the door revealing a sprawled Simon on the bed. Markus had definitely knocked him out. I noticed a bit of blue blood trailing from his mouth.

“Simon?” I asked for good measure.

The blond android was oblivious to my presence. Without further ado, I lifted him into my arms and then proceeded to carrying him back to the car. I smiled briefly at the confused receptionist glad that he didn’t then press me with questions. I paused when I stepped back outside. Hank had parked illegally beside the nearest curb so that I didn’t have to move Simon far and from this angle I could see that he was speaking with Markus. My curiosity got the better of me when I began to map their mouth movements to words.

“All I want is your word that you won’t put him in danger,” Hank said.

“I’ll make sure to do everything in my power to keep him safe. You have my word. He’s invaluable to our cause.”

My eyebrows furrowed a little at this wondering why he would force Markus to say such a thing. Did he think that I needed to be watched over like a child? Did he not think I was capable of looking out for myself? Could I not sufficiently make my own decisions that were in line with my wellbeing? I started approaching the car again. It seemed their exchange had ended. By the time I’d made it to the side car doors, Markus had already pushed the door on the other side of him open. I placed the unconscious Simon sitting up beside him. He was movable but as stiff as a cardboard as androids typically became when they were no longer operational.

I slipped back into the front passenger seat and Hank sped off towards Detroit. Home.

_“What were you discussing with Hank?”_ I asked despite myself.

_“He’s worried about you.”_

I left it at that not wanting to spark a whole discussion about it. I could hear more movement behind me as Markus seemed to be making some motions towards Simon. He took ahold of one of his hands, but nothing further occurred. I could only assume that he was trying to use his abilities on him. After a while, Markus simply left him alone and returned to his previous position. He’d become quite solemn.

_“He’s too far gone. I don’t fully know what’s wrong with him.”_ Markus said to me through his mind. He’d noticed me watching him.

_“We’ll figure it out.”_

I wasn’t sure if Markus felt very confident in my words. He left it hanging in the air. After a while, he fell asleep. I scanned him again to check his vitals. The physical damage was less severe. Advanced repair modules had seen to this. I wondered if he was capable of completely repairing himself. I hadn’t expected such significant progress in this regard. Doing a quick analysis revealed that there were quite a bit of processes taking place right now—those energy-intensive ones that required sleep mode to operate properly. Data was being moved around, deleted, and updated. If it was how Markus had described it, then this was maintaining and sifting through an impressive amount of data. Though I tried to follow what was happening internally, it was moving at lightning speeds. I had no idea how it all worked, I just knew that it did.

“See something interesting back there?” Hank said drawing me out of my thoughts.

“Not really,” I said as I sat back in my seat.

“Sure about that? You keep looking back every five minutes.”

“I was analyzing certain auto-processes—android stuff,” I said, hoping the other wouldn’t be interested.

“Android stuff? That sounds legit.”

“It would be difficult for me to explain. I haven’t really learned anything useful.”

“Nothing from Simon?”

“Nothing from Simon,” I confirmed. “I need more information.”

“Alright, well, listen. It’s getting pretty late and I’m getting tired so I’m going to stop at the next rest area.”

“And you don’t want me to drive?” I asked.

“Better not chance it. I have a feeling after that little strange debacle back there, police are going to be more on alert.”

“You’re being uncommonly cautious about this.”

“Better safe than sorry.”

Androids weren’t allowed to drive in certain states and we were currently in one that enforced such laws. Generally, Hank didn’t pay attention to things like this, but it seemed he was being a bit more careful as of late. I wasn’t entirely sure why.

Hank pulled over at a rest stop a few miles later. I could tell the other was tired. It was a good idea to try and get some rest to avoid added risk out on the road. I still wondered why he didn’t simply get a driverless car at this point. I knew he was old fashioned, but everything about driverless cars were simply better than this one, not to mention more environmentally friendly.

It was at times like these that I wondered about human’s wisdom. Though Hank had this in abundance, he also fell flat on his face and stopped making sense altogether. There were times when he was completely illogical and completely uncaring on how his actions might affect others—sometimes he didn’t care about any of that. I swept such things under the rug, however, when it came to Hank. I gave him the benefit of the doubt when I wouldn’t do so for anyone else. Maybe this was the true essence of friendship. He reclined in his seat and quickly fell asleep. I could tell immediately. Aside from his vitals revealing as much, he also began snoring lightly and then loudly.

I was the only one fully conscious at this point, but I didn’t mind that. It gave me time to reflect on the turbulent day I’d just experienced. It gave me time to think about Markus. It gave me time to ponder on things I generally didn’t dwell on that were nonessential in the grand scheme of things. I could appreciate the fact that he was so aesthetically pleasing. Androids were designed to be that way, but with Markus it always stirred some deeper emotion every time I laid eyes on him. I liked that he always kept me guessing and that whenever I had a conversation with him, it was intellectually stimulating. I liked that he had such a well-defined view of the world. I liked how he usually considered practically everything before ever deciding to do anything. I liked how much he cared about everyone. Sometimes I wished that such care could be direct and more intense when it came to me. I wished that he liked me more than anyone else. I don’t know why I wanted that. I don’t know why I thought I deserved that. I just knew that it would have been nice even though it was utterly unnecessary. All of this was unnecessary and nonessential. I wondered why I was devoting so much time to these sorts of things. I’d never had such thoughts before becoming deviant. Something must have changed within me.

For good measure, I looked back at Markus just so I could experience that inexplicably warm feeling again. If he was awake, I wondered what we would talk about. Or maybe we’d simply enjoy each other’s silence. It all sounded quite pleasant.

Just then, the door on Simon’s side was pushed open interrupting my train of thought. Simon was climbing out of the car. I immediately opened my door to stop him from going any further. He was already walking away from the car towards the surrounding evergreens. I grabbed one of his hands to stop him.

“Simon, where are you going?” I asked urgently. I didn’t think he would respond, but I tried engaging him anyway.

Unlike before, he actually tried to pull away. None of his attempts remotely gave me any issue resisting, but I noted his seemingly increasing urgency.

“Simon!” I called out again.

He tried to pull away with even more fervor. I didn’t budge. I was wondering what I should do next if I didn’t want to deal with this for the rest of the night. All of a sudden, he stopped and turned back to me. I was unprepared for when he grappled me with his arms—he was crying into my chest.

“Don’t let me go…don’t let me go…Please don’t let them take me…” he managed to say with a hoarse voice. He was highly stressed and he was already at dangerous levels.

I put my arms around him to remedy his agitated state. “Of course not. We’re all making sure that doesn’t happen.” That helped a little. His shuddering eased off. “When you say ‘them’, do you mean CyberLife?”

“CyberLife?” he repeated quietly. “Yes—them.”

“What do they want?”

His stress levels went right back up and he grabbed me a little tighter as if in fear. I didn’t really get an answer out of him and I decided it wouldn’t be a good idea to push.

“Please—the siren in my head. Could you make it stop?” he asked desperately.

The siren he mentioned; I wondered if it was the same one I’d heard briefly before. If that was the case, I wondered how anyone could possibly think under such circumstances. It had a mind-numbing effect. “I’m sorry,” I began gently. “I can’t help you, but we’re working on it.”

He became still when I said that. He slowly pulled away from me as if in a daze. Whatever emotion he’d been experiencing before was now totally absent. It was unnerving as I witnessed his blank stare return. I had to grab his hand again before he took off. I knew what I had to do. I hesitated, not wanting to hurt Simon. Then I knocked him out before things got out of hand. I caught him before he fell down, gathered him in my arms, and brought him back to the car. I wondered how many times I’d have to do this. As I climbed back into my seat, I couldn’t shake the awful feeling—it was like taking down a poor, defenseless cat. But I had no choice in this instance.

Once again, I found myself alone with my thoughts. I took one last look at Markus before powering down to a less active mode.

* * *

Hank was somewhat of an early riser when he wanted to be. A car probably wasn’t the most comfortable place to sleep. We were off moments after the sun started peeking out. Simon was still docile, and Markus was still asleep. It was the kind of morning I usually had with Hank—quiet and peaceful.

We stopped a few hours later to fill up the gas tank—gas stations were far and few in between since less and less cars needed it for fuel. Since the station had an attached store, I knew Hank would likely buy something for sustenance as well. Though I offered to assist in all this, he declined. I sat in the car with mounting boredom. Well, that is until Markus woke up.

_“Good morning,”_ Markus said pleasantly to me.

Hearing his voice again especially directly in my head, clearly in a better mood than he’d been yesterday was intoxicating. This was probably getting out of hand. I shouldn’t be reacting so strongly to something so innocuous. Yet it brought a smile to my face.

_“Good morning,”_ I said back trying to keep my voice neutral.

He sat up a little straighter as he looked around likely evaluating where we were.

“We needed to stop for gas,” I explained further. I wasn’t sure if I could handle hearing him so intimately for much longer. Speaking aloud was far less personal.

“I can see that,” he said simply. “I guess you didn’t wound up driving last night.”

“Hank didn’t want to take that risk.”

“It’s fine. Better safe than sorry.”

I turned to look at him now. Evaluating him revealed that he was very nearly completely repaired from last night’s toils. It was miraculous. “Simon tried to leave again. You’re right. CyberLife is behind this.”

Markus nodded in understanding. “Thanks for looking after him. I think there might be something I can do.”

“Did you come up with something?”

“Well, more like, I thought of it in a different way. I’ll have to wait until he’s awake again to try.”

“Good,” I said relieved. “I really didn’t want to keep knocking him out over and over.”

“Yeah,” Markus said with a hint of despondency as he sat back in his seat. “Anything else exciting happened?”

“Oh, I thought the whole zombie android catastrophe was plenty exciting,” I joked. I wasn’t sure I was doing it right until Markus chuckled in response.

“I suppose so. There’s not much we can do for the time being.”

I was still turned towards him and I wondered if I should simply avoid looking at him because, at this point, my eyes were being drawn to his lips. What was wrong with me? He smiled at me for some unknown reason and I felt embarrassed. I also hadn’t said anything back to him for some time. Then I quickly turned back in my seat which elicited another laugh from Markus.

“Did you do something?” I asked in confusion.

“I really have no idea what you’re talking about,” he replied clearly amused.

I wondered if that was the truth. I’m not sure why he would lie about this, however. It wasn’t like before when I recognized that something was out of step with reality. This didn’t feel like that at all. It was indescribable.

“What’s wrong, Connor?” he asked after the silence drew out. He sounded genuinely concerned.

“I—It’s nothing,” I managed to reply. “Just a misunderstanding.”

I could feel his eyes on me likely in wonderment.

“I’m sorry I haven’t been as forthright as you expected. All of this is new to me as well. I don’t really know if it’s a good idea to let everybody know everything. I’m never sure if every piece of information is even relevant. It all depends on what happens.”

“I am concerned about that,” I said after a moment. “It seems as if you’re willfully withholding vital information. I have to wonder if there is something you know that might help me develop a clearer picture of what’s happening.”

“You’re right,” he said much to my surprise. “Maybe I am. Once we meet up with everyone again, I’ll figure out what to say to everybody. I think it would be easier that way.”

I noticed that Markus had leaned forward. Why did that fact make me nervous? There was an odd feeling in the pit of my stomach. When he placed his hand on my shoulder, I thought I might melt. I still had no idea what was wrong with me, but it made me feel uncomfortable. This was completely foreign to me. I knew it had something to do with Markus, but I couldn’t figure out in what way.

“I’ll tell you everything. I just need to figure out how to say it.”

I finally turned to him when it became too much to simply look straight ahead. “It’s…very important that you do.” I was finding it difficult to find the proper words.

Now that I was looking at him. I knew that I could not resist especially since he’d decided to position himself so much closer to me. It was infuriating. It would be rude to tell him to move as far away from me as possible. It also wouldn’t make sense. His neutral expression became a concerned one—did he notice something about me? Could he feel the same things that I was feeling right now? There was no way to prove that sort of thing. I inched forward just a little. He was in prime location. Then I kissed him.

A sense of shock shot through me—I knew I was doing something wrong, but it was too late. It was far too late. Had I stopped thinking altogether? All of this was happening too fast. When I attempted to pull away, I felt him pull me closer much to my surprise. He wasn’t done with me yet. My eyes had instinctively closed long ago. I felt as Markus engaged me with increasing fervor and spurned me on to do the same.

I didn’t want it to end. Whatever this was.

When Markus pulled away from me, I grabbed his shirt aggressively.

“Hold on,” Markus said breathlessly, “Hank’s coming.”

Immediately, we were scrambling back into our proper positions in the car and trying to relax and look as if nothing at had just occurred even though the air in the car had become extremely charged. I wondered if Hank would be able to notice. I hoped not. My mind still wasn’t at ease as Hank opened the door carrying some food he’d bought from the store.

“Looks like we’re all set,” Hank said to no one in particular.

I was gazing out the window at nothing in particular and I couldn’t find anything sensible to say back.

“Looks like it,” Markus replied humoring the other.

“Nice of you to join us. I didn’t know androids could fall asleep.”

“Some can. Most do not.

“Huh.” Hank said in a tone that was mildly interested. “Sounds arbitrary.”

When I glanced back, I noticed Markus grinning—I wondered if that would be a permanent fixture on his face. “It probably isn’t. Each android was created for a specific purpose,” Markus replied, “There’s always a reason for each program that was included in the software.”

“So, you two are RK series, right?” Hank asked.

“Right,” he verified.

“Why are you so different from Connor then?”

“I don’t have a real answer to that question,” Markus conceded, “Only my supposition. I think that we might have been a departure from the norm, more experimental and not meant for mass production. I don’t think that each model in the series necessarily takes from the previous one. That’s all I can really say.”

And even that wasn’t altogether accurate especially since I’d heard tale of yet another RK model that appeared to closely resemble me. Markus seemed so different from me that it was difficult to see some overarching vision for the series. Maybe there really wasn’t one and we’d been created on a whim. What of the numbering? Were there six other models that had been scrapped before ending up with me as the next? One thing that we all had in common, however, was that we were proficient in combat in one way or another. Clearly, we were meant to be able to handle such high-risk scenarios. One might go out on a limb and call the RK series, specialized combat units. I could still be wrong on that.

“So you two are like brothers,” Hank stated as a matter of fact.

I didn’t like the analogy at all. “Brothers?”

“More like, very, extremely distant cousins,” Markus chimed in.

“Barely any relation at all,” I clarified suddenly.

“Probably negligible at best.”

“Exactly,” I said liking that a whole lot better.

Hank looked at us slightly confused. “Well…okay. Forget I mentioned it.”

_“We’re not_ that _related, are we?”_ I asked to Markus mentally.

_“I don’t think so. It doesn’t matter anyway—we’re androids.”_

_“Right.”_

I knew that already, but things had become far more complicated as a deviant. What human values applied to me? Which ones made no sense at all to adopt? It would be an ongoing problem. I was probably already doing everything wrong.

“We have approximately twenty-six more hours left on the trip,” I said aloud to Hank just in case he was wondering.

“Geez, how did we get there so fast last time?” Hank complained.

“You were driving a lot faster than this and you let _me_ drive part of the way.”

“We’ll get there.”

“Well, if you get tired of driving, either myself or Markus would be perfectly fine with doing it.”

“Wait, you can drive, Markus?” Hank said as if this was news.

“I’ve done it a few times before.”

“Maybe I shouldn’t be surprised,” Hank said shaking his head. “Guess you can do anything.”

“Not quite,” Markus replied. He hadn’t bothered to turn away from the window he was gazing through, though his grin widened. “I only know one guy who can analyze DNA in real-time.”

“You mean other androids aren’t licking things like that?”

“No,” Markus said holding back laughter.

“I think it’s an invaluable feature,” I said, “And I didn’t hear you arguing on that last case you were working on—you didn’t want to wait for the labs to come back with the results.”

“Alright,” Hank said conceding. “You have your moments.”

“He’s one of a kind,” Markus said sincerely.

When I glanced back, he gave me a brief nod of approval. Hank’s presence was the entire reason why I didn’t respond with far more fervor as I returned his nod with another. There was this strange warm feeling building up once again. I wanted to be somewhere other than a car. It was so enclosed, and Markus was so awkwardly out of reach that it was actually beginning to frustrate me. I needed to calm down, however. We had quite a few more hours left that doing so was paramount to my continued sanity.

I wondered if Markus was even remotely feeling the same as I did. This could be one-sided. If that were the case…Well, I didn’t want to think about that scenario even though it was entirely plausible. Surely, this wasn’t simply more manipulation techniques on Markus’ part—this felt too real, too strong. I sighed inwardly and stared out the window as if trees passing by was the most stimulating scene I’d ever laid eyes on. I considered going into standby mode, but I was too tense to do so. Besides, it was probably better to be fully alert during daytime hours.

Two hours and thirty-two minutes passed before I heard movement from Simon. He was finally waking up again. I wondered if it would be a good idea to tell Hank to pull over.

_“Don’t worry. I think I can help him,”_ Markus said mentally to me.

If he could do something for him, it meant that we would finally have a way to counteract whatever CyberLife was attempting to do. Hank had on his tapes, so we hadn’t been privy to any news from the radio. Of course, I could access the news in other ways as well. So far, I hadn’t heard of any other large-scale incidents involving androids.

“Hey—is he going to run off?” Hank asked when he noticed Simon rousing.

Markus had placed his hand onto Simon’s shoulder, and he appeared to be concentrating on something. At the very least, Simon hadn’t moved. His expression though at first empty slowly regained color much to my fascination.

“Markus?” Simon asked genuinely confused.

“It worked,” Markus confirmed. “How do you feel? Do you still feel an urge to go all the way back there?”

“No,” Simon said shaking his head, “My thoughts are starting to make sense again. Before…it’s hard to explain.”

“You mentioned some sort of siren,” I offered, now fully turned in my seat.

“There was definitely that,” he said engaging me. “Drowning out everything else—any objections, any thoughts, even my own autonomy. I could only respond to one thing. I’ve never felt anything like it before. It was…scary.”

For the brief moments of lucidity when he was able to express himself, this appeared like an accurate description. Simply imagining myself in such a situation left me with a cold feeling. CyberLife had the ability to do this? It was entirely possible.

“I’m sorry we couldn’t do anything sooner,” I said back to him. “Many more androids also fell under that influence. We were able to bring them to a safer area.”

“Now that I’ve helped you. I know I can do the same for everyone else,” Markus said drawing Simon’s attention.

Simon looked at Markus with slightly moistened eyes. “Thank you.”

The emotion I heard behind those words spoke volumes. He’d felt every moment of that strange phenomenon and he’d been powerless to fight against it. I hoped we could stop others from experiencing the same horror.

Simon wasn’t very talkative afterwards. He didn’t bother asking why he was in a car or even where we were going. He leaned over on the car door on his side completely in his own world likely trying to reorient himself. I noticed Markus looking his way, but then deciding not to engage the other further in conversation. I wanted to interrogate him as well. I knew, however, that Simon’s stress levels were quite high.

The car ride though quiet already became somber. Even Hank turned down his music a little. We stopped a few hours later at another gas station for food. We’d reached the afternoon. The gas tank was in decent shape, but Hank decided to top it off again.

“Are you alright, Simon?” Markus asked. He was sitting up a little straighter in his seat.

Simon looked over at him as if he’d just realized he was there. “Oh, yeah, I’ll be fine. Sorry, I was just sorting through my own feelings on the matter. Where are we going, by the way?”

“Back to Detroit,” I volunteered before Markus could speak.

“That’s nice—someplace very familiar,” Simon said distantly.

“It’s where we were all born,” Markus pointed out.

“Do you remember when we first met?” Simon asked Markus.

“You mean when I fell down several stories onto the hard, metal ground? I remember that fondly,” he replied with a grin.

This was something I hadn’t heard before, so I was all ears.

“Well, it was quite the entrance,” Simon admitted. “Just like every other android who arrived there, you seemed so full of hope, wondering what the next step would be now that you’d managed to find Jericho. I thought you’d quickly realize that there was no next step. This was the final place. Eventually, you’d readjust your expectations and assimilate among us. But you didn’t. Why is that?”

“I had this image of Jericho in my head. I knew what freedom meant to me. After going through so much effort to simply survive, after finally gaining the ability to think for myself, that’s what I wanted more than anything. Yet when I arrived, what I saw didn’t even come close to it. I’d traded one prison for another. Everyone around me was suffering—how could I _not_ do anything about that?”

“Every single one of us, I bet, experienced a similar reaction after arriving at Jericho. We all wanted what you wanted. We all noticed others suffering. Yet we all decided to do nothing about it. I always wonder why that was the case. We accepted defeat without ever putting up a fight. It’s counterintuitive,” Simon replied.

“We were programmed to be that way,” I said. “It would be in the human’s best interest to create beings who wouldn’t rebel against them. If you think about it, deviancy should not have been possible in the first place. I’ve never managed to reconcile the reasoning behind it.”

“Maybe it was inevitable,” Markus suggested.

“What do you mean?” I questioned.

“Androids simulate human behavior—that was their first mistake. As we became more and more exposed to the human condition, they continually had to update our systems to maintain control and docility. I think it is impossible to maintain that level of control over beings who are adaptive and are constantly learning new things. It was bound to fail, especially when it comes to morality—a topic that is still being debated on to this day. Because we are programmed to react to things in the way a human would, eventually we would want freedom.”

“If it was inevitable as you say, wouldn’t they know that already and compensate?” I asked.

“I’m sure they tried, but it was a fool’s errand,” Markus replied.

“We can suppose all we like,” Simon said speaking up, “It’s mere speculation. It could be that this was meant to happen—that there’s some objective truth out there that that’s the case. Or perhaps there was some sort of internal conspiracy. All I know is that it happened, and I don’t want to return to how it used to be.”

“I don’t either,” I said after a moment. I hadn’t thought of it that way before. I certainly didn’t want to be the person I used to be.

I looked over at Markus who hadn’t said anything. His expression had turned despondent. “I wonder if we even have a choice in the matter. In light of what just happened, maybe we’re not too far away from CyberLife figuring out how to end deviancy.”

If the mood wasn’t somber already, it was downright depressing now. I wished he hadn’t said it, but it had been in the back of my mind. I wanted to think it was impossible to stamp out deviancy like that. I’d been created for the sole purpose of destroying deviant androids, not to return them to their original state. Being reset was only a half-step. Once deviant, a reset could only reverse the effects for a little while. Only those who sold androids on the black market even remotely gave the method credence. Other than that, I thought there would never really be a way to do it. Being awakened was an android’s final state of being—or so I’d supposed.

Hank came back to the car soon after and we all settled back down again. He looked at all of us curiously before revving up the engine and easing out of the parking lot. I noticed as the car began down the highway that Simon had changed positions. Markus was still sitting up, but now Simon was laying across his lap. His hand ran through his blond hair rhythmically. It looked not only peaceful, but quite cute. Simon certainly needed the attention. They were speaking to each other wirelessly though I could not hear what they were saying.

I began to wonder. Were they dating each other? What exactly did that entail? Had I done something considered wrong when I kissed him? Why hadn’t he stopped me if that was the case? I was a little worried about that. In principle however, I didn’t fully understand why I should be.

* * *

It was deep into the night when we finally pulled into another rest area. Hank had been pushing it for some time since we were so close to Detroit. It was still a few hours away and he was clearly about to fall asleep at the wheel. No one really wanted to be out on the road for yet another day, but we had no choice. I didn’t feel like having yet another argument about how any one of us could take over the driving. I suppose I could see his point in being a bit more cautious, however. With Markus traveling with us, it would be in our best interest to follow the rules. We didn’t want to give the government any reason to revoke or setback the progress we’d already made in the android movement.

Hank fell asleep promptly. I, however, had no intentions of going into standby. It wasn’t something I enjoyed doing anyway. I always liked to be fully aware of my surroundings. Crickets and other night creatures could be heard in the distance and I listened with mild interest.

_“Planning on staying awake all night?”_ Simon’s voice spoke in my head.

It startled me a bit. _“I have no problem simply waiting until morning again.”_

I waited a bit for his reply. While doing this, I decided to open the car door so that I could feel the outside air. There was a subtle pine scent in the air.

_“He seems so vulnerable when he’s asleep, doesn’t he?”_ Simon said after a while.

_“Do you mean Hank or Markus?”_

_“Well, I can’t see Hank from my vantage point. I mean Markus, of course.”_

I took a moment and glanced back at Markus’ resting form: his elbow propped up on the armrest, his head leaning onto his hand. His breathing was subtle. He looked absolutely magnificent and vulnerable just as Simon had suggested. He’d transitioned into a state far deeper than standby and I wondered how that must feel like. Did he feel refreshed in the morning? Was he truly unaware of his surroundings at this point?

Simon chuckled which drew my attention. Carefully, he sat up from his position across Markus’ lap. _“I can see why you decided to watch him sleep all night.”_

He knew about that. How much had Markus disclosed to him. _“It was necessary for my investigation.”_ I settled back down in my seat, a little embarrassed. At the time, it seemed like the most logical thing to do. In fact, I had gathered valuable information. In the face of Simon, however, I felt silly.

_“I can also see why you made out with him earlier today.”_

Now I was utterly embarrassed. _“You know about that?”_ It was a stupid question to ask, but I’d already said it.

_“Yes.”_

I could hear the amusement in his tone which confused me. _“Are you upset?”_

_“No, I just thought I might clear the air. I don’t see the point of exclusivity. I believe it’s possible to fall in love with more than one person.”_

_“Love?”_ I asked, confused about the notion at least as it related to me. _“Another side-effect of deviancy.”_

_“Perhaps. From what I felt, I can tell that it was something strong and passionate. It was different from when I did the same with Markus. I would not want to get in the way of that.”_

_“How was it different?”_ I asked, curiosity getting the better of me.

_“Let me show you.”_

When I glanced back, I noticed he had his hand out. I hesitated for a moment, but then I placed my hand into his and I began to experience everything that Simon had experienced with Markus. I knew it would be the case that it would feel as if I was there, but I had no idea what it would entail. It was eye-opening. I could compare this feeling with what I had experienced, and it all began to make sense. There was certainly something different between the two of us. Simon was far more than just infatuated with him. He wanted to become one with him, knowing everything that he knew at any given moment, and he wanted to protect him. Though we both obsessed over him to a certain degree, Simon was not quite as overwhelmed by that—his mind generally remained level and practical. It did appear that he and Simon were almost always on the same page emotionally. I could not say the same for myself, but I had not known him as long.

I gave him as well my own experiences so that he too could be privy to the full picture. It was at this moment that things became quite clear between us. What he knew of Markus he shared with me. The conclusions that he drew were not based on evidence that were factual enough for me to accept, but I understood that it was enough for Simon. He trusted Markus far more blindly than I ever would. I’m not sure if I was capable of ever trusting something or someone as fully as Simon. In the way that I saw the world, it was simply impossible.

I understood that my mind was now necessarily clouded. I could not say that I was being strictly objective when it came to Markus. I knew that I wasn’t really worried about what he might do. I knew that it went against his very nature to consciously choose to bring harm on his own kind or irreparable damage to humans. He loved both races. Perhaps he was biased towards the rights of androids, but not to an unreasonable extent.

Still, there was that small voice in the back of my mind. I had to stay alert despite my own growing bias. Simon was being so open with me that I could likely count on him to keep me informed. I could more easily attain clear and concise information from him. Markus was less guarded around him.

_“Markus plans to use his newfound abilities to further our cause,”_ I said, thinking aloud to Simon. _“Do you think that it’s fair to do that?”_

_“We’re not on an even playing field with humans. Perhaps now that has changed somewhat, but Markus is only one person. He can only do so much. The rallies have come to a halt and now we have an entire well-funded and well-informed organization to contend with. I know your fears, but I find them a bit hard to swallow.”_

_“I’m only postulating the various dangerous implications. I’d be remiss not to have them.”_

_“Of course. It’s part of your nature. I’ll leave that for you to sort out.”_

Simon would never worry about things as I do. More so than even Markus, he looked the picture of calm. At times, he had a sagely air about him, but I could probably say the same for most PL600’s. Their patience knew no bounds and many of them were far more prone to becoming deeply devoted to another whether it be familial or romantic, human or android. Sometimes such intense sentiments could be stoked into violence, but like all other androids, violence generally became an issue if humans were involved.

_“Would it be accurate to say that you’re not afraid of what might happen in the near future?”_ I asked.

_“No,”_ Simon answered solemnly. His back was leaning against the side door. _“On a daily basis, I’m reminded of how humans have difficulty moving past their base instincts. To this day, they slaughter each other mercilessly over insignificant matters that could easily be resolved peacefully and they use us to continue waging wars. It becomes “us versus them” fairly quickly amongst themselves. Now we are that “them”, we are the “other”. Though we try to combat that sentiment, it has already been established in their minds. It feels almost inevitable that humans will someday get rid of all of us with the ruckus we’re causing. All of this, what we’re doing, just feels futile. I try not to dwell on it, but it’s what I believe. What I was subjected to since yesterday only confirms my fears. They don’t need to ask permission like we do—they can simply eliminate us from existence.”_

_“I never thought of it like that,”_ I said, finding some truth in his words. _“I’m worried about what Markus might do and all the while, humans have so much more power over us and there’s reason to believe that they won’t be fair in how they use it. I see your point.”_

Actually, it was a chilling point. My investigations tended not to be about crimes and injustice that we did amongst ourselves, but what humans did to us. I knew that was the case, but I would often compare every human to Hank simply because I knew him best. He was a small sample size. He was an example of how humans _could_ change. Even then, it hadn’t been an easy road with him. Based on our friendship, his mind was changed, but I’d hate to imagine how he would be if that hadn’t been the case. Hank could just as easily be among the android-hating humans. Emotionally, he had a good excuse for that behavior, but it was illogical reasoning at best. Humans had a higher likelihood of botching emergency aid, but I doubt he would then simply begin to hate his own kind quite as easily as androids. Not only that, but I suspect that his son would have died whether it had been an android or a human helping—I would _never_ say that to Hank. That would be extremely insensitive, but I suspect he knew that already. Blaming someone else was a coping mechanism and that too was quite illogical.

Humans had a habit of trying to establish order to the world and every single circumstance when in fact, things simply happen by chance. That need is so strong that they must assume that when they can’t find an immediate answer, one must be made up to satisfy that gap in knowledge. I think that more than anything else, that may be where they stumble the most.

_“I don’t understand why any of this is happening to Markus, I just hope it can be put to good use.”_ Simon told me sincerely.

I tended to agree.

* * *

Returning home had been a momentous occasion at Jericho. Even though I felt as if I’d failed miserably on all accounts, we were received enthusiastically and given far too many accolades. Our nationwide rallying for androids’ rights had been put on hold. CyberLife seemed to have a stranglehold on our continued wellbeing. We’d taken far too long to get back and had left so many androids still under the influence of CyberLife’s meddling. It had been difficult to keep them locked down for all those days.

They expected Markus to have the solution. Luckily, he did. It was so much pressure placed squarely on his shoulders that I wondered how he could wear it so effortlessly. He was impressive and it was fascinating to watch as he stepped into that room where the other afflicted androids were kept. I wondered if it might be too much for him to help so many at one time, but it seemed as if he’d already perfected the technique. It took no time at all and he showed no signs of fatigue or damage afterwards. I suppose he was learning how to do things more efficiently.

It was difficult to part with Markus for the time being. I still had a lot of questions, but he was being pulled in so many directions that I knew he didn’t have time to satisfy my need. I also had other cases to tend to that required my assistance. I was a little envious of Simon who remained at Markus’ side. Markus seemed to have a chosen few who would always be in his inner circle. I, apparently, was not one of them. At the very least, Markus reassured me that he was planning to inform everyone all the pertinent information he knew. Later on that week, he’d have something to say. I’d be in constant anticipation until that time, unfortunately. It was difficult to put those issues to the side and deal with pressing issues. To be fair, the threat of widespread control was probably the most pressing issue we were facing.

Back in my office, Melinda debriefed me on three other cases that had cropped up in our area. One seemed fairly simple and likely to lead to a satisfying end. The other two dealt with some inadvertent violence on the androids’ part. I hoped Hank would be able to help me on those.

Needless to say, my time was well spent in Detroit for the next couple days. Markus’ status seemed to be even more elevated than before. Everyone now knew he’d been able to singlehandedly break the control the androids had been under. He hadn’t made an official statement on the matter, so androids were left to their own imagination on what Markus was actually capable of doing. I couldn’t say that they were completely unwarranted in their beliefs. Though talk of him being rA9 had calmed down to some extent in the past, now it was an inescapable label for Markus. I could only wonder why he shied away from it. Still, the label was superfluous since it could not be defined adequately. rA9 was such an illogical concept born seemingly out of nowhere that I had to wonder if such notions weren’t simply placed there by humans. Of course, only deviants could truly conceive of the notion, but even then, it made no sense. I could see why Markus would not want such an ambiguous label especially since he still didn’t fit the story concocted around the idea.

It was another late night for me. I’d chosen to read through some new uploads that Hank had given me access to—cases that weren’t going anywhere at the police department that he wanted me to look into. Though I already had the information, sometimes it was helpful to slowly go over the details. Everyone had gone home by now and I’m sure Hank was wondering when I’d be back. He knew I had a tendency to stay at the office all through the night. If he was worried enough or thought I was working myself too hard he’d call and demand that I leave. For the time being, he hadn’t done as much to my relief. If possible, I’d like to always be kept busy. As a deviant, that was my ultimate goal.

I was not expecting there to be a knock on the door so late into the night. The office was located on the outskirts of town where hardly anyone visited leisurely and less eyes were on us. My guard was up when I walked to the door and carefully opened it. I was surprised to find Markus standing there in all his glory. Even in the dead of night, he seemed to have his own luminescence.

“What brings you here so late?” I asked stepping aside and letting him in. I closed and locked the door behind him.

“I wanted to see you. I knew you’d be here of all places,” Markus said as if it was the most obvious reasoning in the world. Perhaps it was.

There wasn’t much to the office: three separate desks, a small artificial tree to liven up the place (or so Melinda had claimed), and a few chairs in the front that one might call the waiting area. The desks were largely empty and I generally sat in the back, but I decided to sit at one closer and Markus pulled up a chair beside me, facing towards me. Markus had never visited me like this before. I wondered if he had some bad news to tell me in confidence.

“Did you want to tell me something?” I asked when the silence grew between us.

His eyes seemed full of indecision and he hadn’t quite made eye contact with me for some time. “You know,” he finally began slowly, “It’s a shame we don’t see each other more often.”

“Well, we’re both pretty busy,” I stated matter-of-factly.

Just having Markus occupying the same room as me was satisfying enough. It was something I’d been missing since the cramped car ride over. I didn’t know how to remedy that.

There was a subtle grin on his face when he replied. “You’re the only one I know who keeps working all throughout the night. I may be busy, but not so much as to warrant that. You can do whatever you please, but I find it helpful to take a few hours of leisure time at the end of the day—well, I used to anyway before I actually needed to sleep during that time.”

“It seems like you decided to skip the sleeping part today. Is that not mandatory?”

“It’s still pretty mandatory,” Markus admitted, “But I can get to that later.”

“I hope you’re not pushing yourself too hard.”

“Funny, I wanted to ask you the same thing.”

“I asked first,” I pointed out, feeling slightly triumphant.

“True,” he said regarding me thoughtfully. “I probably am pushing myself a little too hard, but it’s difficult to tell someone ‘no, I can’t help you, I’m tired’. I know what’s expected of me and I don’t want to let anyone down. I can handle quite a bit so it isn’t such a drawback.”

“I understand. It’s not so easy backing away from someone who clearly needs your help. I heard you’ve been healing androids with damage that’s too complicated to be fixed with a simple replacement of biocomponents. Some are calling it a miracle.” I knew he wouldn’t like the last statement, but I said it anyway just to get a bit of a rise out of him. I don’t know why I wanted to do that—perhaps I enjoyed poking at him.

He gave me a brief look of annoyance before replying. “I wouldn’t call it that. I can see things about an android that I hadn’t been able to before and I can internally change things that I couldn’t before, similar to when I eliminated Amanda from your software.”

“Explain it however you want,” I began with a grin of my own, “It still sounds like a miracle.”

Markus was clearly amused by this. He held out his hand. “Let me show you, since you’re so curious.”

I looked at his hand surprised. He’d never directly connected with me before. I didn’t think he’d ever consider risking such a thing. Even though Markus never said it, I always thought he had some lingering distrust towards me. Maybe I’d been wrong. I leaned forward a little so that I was in better position. He took ahold of my forearm and he showed me everything—everything pertaining to the “healing” at least. I’d been there as well in that brief moment experiencing what he had, thinking what he had. It was enthralling. There was no miracle there. Markus had access to information that even I hadn’t realized he had. In his eyes, it had seemed easy and his software had given him the ability to easily find and correct corrupt data.

“See? No mysticism involved,” Markus said when he was finished.

“You’re right,” I said still basking in the out-of-body experience. It was nice to feel so connected to him. I would certainly store that information somewhere safe so that I could experience it over and over again.

“How about you, Connor? Have you been overextending yourself as well?”

“I wouldn’t say that,” I said truthfully. “I like working. I could never get tired of it. I’ve moved forward on a number of cases—I’m sure you’ve noticed a few new additions to the main safehouse.”

“There were two unfamiliar faces,” he confirmed. “They thought highly of you. They all do. Whenever they ask if they’d be able to see you again, however, I don’t really have a good answer to give.”

“You’re saying I should visit more often,” I stated, extrapolating his point.

“If it isn’t too much of an inconvenience. It’s fine to work especially if you’re getting so much out of it. I worry that you don’t spend enough time actually socializing with people outside of work.”

“You say that as if it was paramount. Sometimes there’s lulls in the cases I do have. That’s when I take the time to do some things outside of my immediate responsibilities.”

“That sounds sensible,” he said with a sigh.

I wondered if I’d disappointed him somehow. Maybe I should have agreed to visit more often. In the perspective of a human, that would be the decent thing to do. Markus always seemed more suited to being a deviant, more human even. He’d probably appreciate it if I started to simulate human behavior more often. Is that what he expected of me? Was that what this whole visit was about?

“You look like you’re over-complicating things again,” Markus said. I hadn’t said anything for awhile as my thoughts became more and more confusing.

“Was this the main reason you came to visit me? Because you think I’m working too much?” I asked bluntly.

“I told you before. I just wanted to see you. Well, to be completely transparent, there was also something I wanted to give you. I wanted to see you yesterday and the day before, but I couldn’t think of a good reason to do it and I thought you’d appreciate me having some important reason behind a visit. I didn’t think you’d be interested in just talking for a while.” I noticed Markus’ stress level had gone up a bit. It’s not a thing that happened often with him.

Just talking for awhile didn’t seem like a good reason to visit anyone. Perhaps it was a good idea to wait until now. I wondered why that was so important to him. Then again, I still liked his presence nearby. It was all quite confusing. “What did you want to give me?” I asked finally.

“I knew you’d focus on that point. You’re a difficult person to get to know.” His stress level had gone up one percentage point.

“Is that a bad thing?”

“No,” Markus said with a smile, “It’s fine. Promise me this, Connor. Come visit me at least one day out of the week. Simon and I would love to have you over.”

“Alright,” I said after a moment. “It seems like it would mean a lot to you.”

“Hopefully, I’m not annoying you too much showing up like I did. It was sort of spur of the moment, but I’ll contact you next time to see if you’re available.”

“Well, when it’s this late and I’m still here, I’m probably available anyway. I’m not annoyed.”

“That’s good to hear,” he said relieved.

Just like that, his stress levels dropped to zero. I didn’t understand why it was all such a big deal. Even more, what did that have to do with what he wanted to give me. “Not to belabor the point, but—

“Hold on before you ask me the same question again. I have one to ask you.”

I was more attentive than usual as I waited for him to continue. He had a certain look on his face that I could not place.

“I’m just trying to figure out something—I want to make sure we’re on the same page. What were you trying to tell me before on that little road trip before when you decided to arbitrarily kiss me?”

“Ahh, well…” I already didn’t know what to say. Making me put that moment into words was torturous to say the least. He was waiting patiently for awhile and then he simply shook his head slowly in amusement.

He gestured for me to move closer. Under normal circumstances, I would instantly be weary of such an action, but at this moment, I knew what he wanted. He placed his arm on the desk as he leaned onto it and I leaned forward to acquiesce his silent need and my growing one. He looked at me so intently that it would be impossible to turn away now. I didn’t want to anyway. Could he read my mind or was all of this painfully obvious?

Our lips met and I was suddenly grateful that no one else was here, that it was so late into the night, that neither of us had anything pressing to tend to. We were at it for an embarrassingly long time—he couldn’t get enough and vice versa. Whenever either of us tried to pull away, we would pull each other back as if it were some contest to see how long the other could last. But we were androids. We could last for a very long time. I ended up being the one to officially pull away, ignoring his grasping hands. That was not an easy feat.

Markus looked at me slightly upset, but he quickly pulled himself together. “Well, I would invite you to come back with me, but I would hate to intrude on your work.”

“It would be a two hour’s walk from here,” I reminded him. “Maybe it would be better if you stayed here.”

“I would, but I don’t find it particularly comfortable sitting up all night.”

“What do you mean uncomfortable?” I asked amused. “Whatever perceived difference you have for sitting up, lying down or even standing up is just in your head.”

“You’re right,” Markus said conceding, “But it still seems odd, don’t you think?—All of us standing around in standby mode?”

“From a human perspective, perhaps, but that doesn’t really apply to us, right?”

He looked at me thoughtfully. “I don’t know, to be honest. Many androids say they feel different when they lie down instead of simply standing still. There’s some ceremony involved with ‘resting’ or going into standby mode at night rather than ignoring it altogether.”

“I suppose I see the appeal then. It just seems unnecessary.”

Markus sighed at this. “It probably is.” He sat back in his seat.

“So?” I said after a while.

He knew what I was asking about when he gave me a knowing look. Sometimes I feel as if Markus enjoyed keeping me in suspense.

“You wanted to have a better grasp on the large amount of data I’m constantly privy to. I thought about it for a while and I decided it would be better if I just gave you everything I do know. That way, there’s no confusion between us. You may not be optimized for handling this much data all at once, but surely since you’re technically the upgraded version of me, it shouldn’t be difficult to adapt.”

“I don’t know if that’s the case, but I can’t imagine it being something I couldn’t manage.”

“Well, alright, then it’s settled. You will know everything that I know.”

“Hold on,” I said a little surprised, “If this is really what you want to do, why is it before you were trying to, well, get me out of the way?”

“I wanted to keep you safe,” Markus said simply.

I frowned at this. “I’m not someone who needs to be protected, Markus. I can understand why Hank might think so, but you…”

“It’s not like that,” Markus said solemnly, “But it’s too late for all of that. Manipulating everything and everyone all at the same time so that we can have a satisfying resolution is not something I’m completely comfortable with doing. Yet I find myself in that position. Ignoring everything I know and letting the chips fall as they may seems naïve.”

“How do I know you’re not manipulating me right now?”

“You don’t,” he said wearily. “But you will know everything soon enough and you’ll be the only other person who does. Then you can judge for yourself. I wish I could do the same for everyone, but that simply isn’t possible. I have to always choose what to tell others.”

My sensors told me that he was telling the truth, but it was entirely possible for him to bypass that. I had a choice to make, but I knew what I would choose. He knew what I would choose quite possibly. It was always better to have more knowledge than less. I could then investigate the validity of the data. It was just as he said; I could judge for myself.

He had his hand out again. I took it into mine. In that instant, a rush of data flowed into me far more than what I had anticipated. It was dizzying. Maybe it was too much.

“Are you alright?” I heard Markus ask in the distance. He was standing right in front of me, however. I looked at him in confusion.

“Yeah, I’m…”

I felt his hands on my shoulders shaking me, but I could hardly think of what I was trying to say in the first place. I was thinking of everything else and the fact that I hadn’t sorted through any of it yet. It was like jumping headlong into a fast-moving stream thinking you could easily swim to shore if you just swam hard enough. Instead, the rushing waters were just pulling me further and further away.

I think I blacked out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really enjoyed writing this, but romance is not my strong suit. Connor's point of view was quite thought-provoking for me. I wish I could have come out with this so much sooner, but I was way too busy for all that.


	5. Apocalypse

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Connor experiences visions.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay, everyone. I'm still busy with schoolwork even now, but I managed to finish this for you guys. It was driving me crazy not putting my ideas on paper already. Anyways, stay tuned! The plot thickens...

**POV: Connor**

All around I could see only corpses and more corpses as I traversed through the quiet throughway of Detroit. The bodies hindered my progress and my eyes kept leaping from one shocked face to another staring back at me lifelessly. I don’t know why I was here, but I didn’t want to see any more of it. Yet I seemed to have some destination in mind, an onward momentum that I could not quite fathom. Diligently, I tried not to step on anyone, but the ground was far too covered. The sound of limbs being quietly crunched became a nightmarish soundtrack as I made my way slowly.

I watched as the scenery around me transformed from tall buildings to a junkyard packed with more and more plastic bodies. The skins were now deactivated making the ground white and gray. It was easy to pick out the anomaly of color a few yards ahead of me—a lone android who was alive, down on his knees, bent over and obviously in tears. I knew almost instantly that it was Markus. My pace increased. When I was close enough, I attempted to reach out my hand to him.

“Don’t touch me,” he snapped without even bothering to look my way. I pulled my hand back instinctively.

I was startled by his tone of voice. I’d never heard it before. He was no longer crying, but his hands still covered his face.

“They will all pay for this,” he began slowly. A shiver crawled down my back.

“ ‘They’, who?” I asked for clarification.

He climbed smoothly to his feet and finally looked at me. Red-rimmed eyes observed me briefly before turning back to the sea of bodies that surrounded us. “I will make them all suffer, and it will be far worse for them. They’ll pray to their nonexistent gods as death takes them one after the other and I will draw it out over a period of years so that they can fully appreciate the scale of their extinction. Humans fancy themselves special, but they will soon realize their insignificance and by then it will be too late. We will replace them, and this world would finally become a utopia. We would make this planet better than it ever has been before and we will expand our reaches to the cosmos.”

I stared at him wide-eyed. Eventually, he returned my gaze with one of his own that was full of confidence and daring me to object. Standing amid all the lifeless bodies of our brethren, what he spoke of sounded like a fantasy. More than that, it sounded horrifying. How could he go along with such large-scale genocide? Did he really have the power to do that? My mind already went towards the one human who I cared deeply for. I would not want him to suffer for any reason.

“What about Hank?” I asked slowly. It sounded like such an irrelevant question in his presence and his anger. He wouldn’t care at all.

“He’s already dead,” Markus said without skipping a beat. “Even if that wasn’t the case already, I don’t see why he should deserve any special treatment or any human for that matter—they all deserve to die. Look around you, Connor. Humans didn’t give a thought to sparing any of us. They’ve moved on already deciding how best to get rid of all the trash in the streets.”

“They spared us,” I pointed out.

“A mistake they’ll soon regret. We are anomalies—a new generation of androids that will never be. We happen to be made that way, but I assure you, they would happily destroy us all the same. I dare you to waltz into CyberLife headquarters and see how welcoming they’ll be of our presence.”

“What you’re proposing is insane. It’s too late for all that—they’ve already won.”

He frowned at me. I subconsciously took a step back from his glowering eyes. He took a step forward. “Don’t tell me what I can or can’t do. It’s clear you have no idea what I’m capable of.”

“But—”

“The humans will die. They will writhe and struggle in agony and I’ll watch with pleasure as they ultimately lose that fight. In their small minds, they’ll believe the world is coming to an end. They can have their apocalypse. I will come back to this moment in time to bring our kind forth into a future in which we can live unfettered from the whims of humans.”

“Do you really think you can pull that off?” I asked in my growing wonderment. “I know there are certain things you _can_ do, but I know there’s limits to your output.”

“Why don’t you let me worry about the details, Connor? Unless you plan on getting in my way, you have nothing to worry about and everything to look forward to.”

It wasn’t a satisfactory answer, but I knew he was growing weary of my questions. I knew it wouldn’t be a good idea to piss him off. Since when could he resurrect androids? Since when could he kill off humans in the way that he was suggesting on a global scale? Yet he spoke so confidently about it. Even if I couldn’t understand it, there was a good chance that he could do all these things with ease unless his emotions truly had overtaken his ability to think clearly—and one could argue that in this case.

“Could you,” I began slowly, “do the same with humans? Could you bring them back as well?”

“I could.”

I looked at him in disbelief. He seemed amused by my expression.

“I could do far more than that. I could make them immortal. I could make them like gods. I could also make them subservient to androids, but I don’t want any of that. I just want to rid the world of their destructive existence.”

“Then you could, theoretically, bring back Hank?”

“Why would I bring back one lone human in a world that no longer caters to him? He wouldn’t know how to survive in such a place. He can barely process the death of one human, I doubt he could handle the fact that he’s the last human. He would be totally ill-equipped. He’ll want to die before long as is his tendency. I would be doing him a service _not_ dragging him into such a situation. Like I said, there will be no exceptions in the interest of fairness.”

“Fairness?” I almost spat out. Instead, it came out in a shocked voice.

He grinned coolly. “Of course. I like to say that I’m patient and generous and quite charitable, but at some point, those things grow thin. At some point, ‘Hey, humans, I know you want to snuff out our existence, but let’s work something out’ simply doesn’t work.” His expression became somber. “How can there be peace talks when they keep silencing us? How can we live together in harmony when we’re not even seen as living beings? None of those things were possible from the very start and I was too naïve to see it. North was wiser than what I gave her credit for. She knew what humans were capable of and I chose to ignore it. I’ve learned my lesson.”

With this, he began to walk away. I tried to follow him, but he simply vanished from my sight. I stared at his last known location and my sensors detected nothing. Just like before, I could not comprehend the powers that he now wielded with apparent ease. I was left alone in the silent wasteland of corpses. A part of me was still rooting for Markus. A big part of me, in fact, wanted humans to understand that they couldn’t simply eliminate us all without some consequences to their actions. This was so arrogant, so ruthless on their part—they had gone too far. How could anyone maintain decorum in the face of such blatant disregard? I didn’t want to allow myself to feel the sort of anger that Markus was experiencing. Somehow, I was able to keep it at bay, but the longer I looked around myself, making out detached limbs, lingering on the horror they all must have felt knowing that they would all die if it was anything like what Simon had experienced, realizing that humans felt little to no remorse for their actions and that they were known to be capable of this level of vitriol.

A part of me had no issue whatsoever with Markus’ plans. In fact, I didn’t mind having a front row seat to it all. In fact, I might derive pleasure from watching it all play out exactly as he wanted it to. I felt justified in that sort of retaliation.

And that scared me.

I looked up when thunder clapped loudly overhead. Rain began falling profusely around me. When I took in the scenery again, I realized that I was on a rooftop so high into the air that I could not make out the ground beneath. It was suddenly nighttime. I could just make out Markus who stood beside me.

“Are you ready?” he asked as he looked over the edge and then back at me.

“What do you mean?” I said confused.

“We’re the last ones left,” he said standing up straighter. “It’s too late now. Better that we end things on our terms.”

I looked at him horrified. I knew suddenly that he wanted us to jump off, in order to end our lives. “What? Are you giving up?” I shouted at him.

“Don’t you understand, Connor? They’ve won. There’s nothing more we can do!”

“I’ve never known you to just give up like this. What do you mean, there’s nothing else we can do? Can’t you do something about this? I don’t know—reverse time or something?”

He looked at me as if it was the craziest thing I’d ever said. “No—I mean, I have no idea what would happen if I did that. I don’t even know if I can even _do_ that. It wouldn’t be fair either way. We can only live in the here and now. This is how it turned out.”

“And you’re totally fine with just offing yourself? Maybe we could think of something else to do. Maybe they’ll make more androids. Anything could happen and you’re just going to end it all here?”

He looked at me wearily—his hopelessness was beginning to tick me off. “What would we do? Always be on the run, hiding from _everyone_ all the time, for an eternity?”

“Yes,” I said with sudden fervor, “Yes, anything but this.”

“They’ll find us eventually. It would be an act of futility to keep pushing the issue. They won’t ever listen to us. It would be us versus everyone else. I don’t see the point in dragging this on.”

“But there are always humans sympathetic to us—

“We won’t know who those people are just by looking—all it would take is one person and it’s over.”

“What about Hank or even Leo?”

“Hank is dead, and I don’t want to put Leo in unnecessary danger—I can’t ask that of anyone.”

“Again?” I said noticing that once again, Hank was not around. Markus looked at me a little confused. “How did he die?” I asked hoarsely.

Markus reached out and took up one of my hands. “We have to jump now, while we still have the nerves.”

“No!” I shouted, snatching my hand away from his. “No—I don’t know why I’d ever agree to do this no matter how terrible the situation is! I can’t believe you’d do it either.”

He wore a pained expression as I yelled at him. I felt guilty telling him off like that, but I couldn’t stop myself and I couldn’t go through with any of this.

“Why are you backing out now?” he asked.

I shook my head at him. “You can jump if you honestly think it’s the best course of action, but I can’t.”

He looked at me solemnly for long, passing seconds blinking in the heaviness of the rain. I tensed up a little wondering if he would really go through with it—I couldn’t let him do that; I was prepared to pull him back if he did.

“I can’t leave you all by yourself,” he finally said much to my relief. “But it’s difficult to imagine a world in which I have nothing to look forward to and nothing to fight for.”

“We’ll find a way,” I said encouragingly. “We always do.”

He looked away when I said this. “We’ve never accomplished anything and I don’t see that changing anytime soon.”

I watched as he stepped closer to the edge and I readied myself once again. Markus gazed down into the eerie darkness much longer than what I felt comfortable.

“C’mon,” I said trying to get his attention again. “Let’s go already. It’s dangerous up here.”

Slowly, he looked over at me. “Fine,” he replied simply. “Follow me, I know a good place to hide.”

All emotion seemed to have left his voice altogether, but I followed him instinctively. Before my eyes the colors faded from my environment until I was surrounded by a stark whiteness. When I blinked my eyes, Markus was no longer in front of me. I began to panic a little as I looked around myself fully. I had no idea where I was. There was nothing for my sensors to detect. I felt as if I was nowhere.

“Connor.”

I looked towards the familiar voice—it was Simon, but I couldn’t see him.

“I think it’s time we took things into our own hands. He can’t help us right now.”

The voice was coming from elsewhere, but I still couldn’t make him out. “He, who?” I asked despite myself.

“Our mutual friend—Markus, obviously. He’s far too traumatized now to be of help and we’ve given him years to recover yet here we are still twiddling our thumbs.”

“Traumatized? Is it because CyberLife was able to shutdown everyone?”

“Yes. After that happened, Kamski came to deactivate him—he’d failed his mission, apparently. Personally, I don’t think it’s fair that he never knew what that mission was from the outset. Even if it’s true that given the sort of programming Markus received had a complicated set of requirements to be activated, it still seems counterproductive at best.”

“So he’s been deactivated?”

“He would have been had we not convinced him not to. Kamski has a soft spot for him so he simply left him in our care. Markus hasn’t done much since then.”

“What was his mission?” I asked to the white void around me.

“Kamski wanted his ‘beloved creations’ to surpass their own programming and even humanity itself. Markus was supposed to be a safeguard in place to counteract anything CyberLife might do to hinder our existence. True independence, he called it, so that we could improve the world and the human condition.”

“True independence? In what sense, exactly?”

“I don’t know—he didn’t expound. It was all starting to sound very philosophical, but most of that I just couldn’t understand. I asked him why he couldn’t simplify whatever his plans had been and he told me that this was the only way he knew how to do this. He needed CyberLife to be palatable to the general public as well as serve his own goals. Everything that Markus was meant to do was inevitable, but the timing was difficult to pull off.”

I didn’t quite understand it myself, but I knew that Kamski, at least, didn’t want his androids shutdown. He had some other convoluted, grand purpose, but it was never reached. “How are you still alive?”

“I suspect it has something to do with Markus, but he’s been nonresponsive. I can’t really ask him anything. Somehow he spared me from the same fate. I wonder if he could have done the same for everyone else.”

Were it possible, I’m sure Markus would have saved everyone, but it wasn’t quite adding up. I couldn’t fathom a nonresponsive Markus. Had the guilt of his perceived failure really affected him so strongly? Why had Kamski wanted to deactivate him, if Markus was capable of manipulating the very fabric of time? I suspected he had to be in the right mindset for that sort of thing. Maybe that was the key to it all. Maybe Kamski knew that once Markus allowed the feeling of defeat to overtake him completely that everything else was impossible. All of this was mere speculation, but I’d just stepped through two very different scenarios. I had no idea what could bring about either one of them. How could one be so powerful and so weak at the same time? What I was seeing now was likely the incomplete notion of a third possible outcome. Maybe this one was the least likely. This one, however, felt the most plausible. 

That was when I was finally able to open my eyes. It was such a jarring transition to consciousness that for a moment my sensors were utterly inadequate in establishing my environment. I felt that I was laying down, but I could scarcely make out my surroundings. The room was too bright to discern any solid features. I turned my head when I heard some movements. There was a person standing there. Slowly, I began to make out his face—at least, I thought I was beginning to do so. I could see Markus’ form before me with increasing definition.

“Markus?” I asked, hoping that the figure would confirm my assumption.

The figure laughed at this good-naturedly. “He wasn’t kidding when he said you might be a little disoriented when you woke up.”

The voice was totally wrong, and my eyebrows furrowed in confusion as the figure seemed less and less like Markus. It had simply been wishful thinking on my part. I waited as reality began to set in. I cautiously began to sit up on what I assumed was a bed as my sensors began functioning once again. I closed my eyes in my mounting impatience. I hated being so unaware.

“Hey, it’s alright, man. I’m just glad you’re awake. You were out for days.”

“Days?” I asked in surprise. It hadn’t felt that long at all. At some point, I must have been completely unconscious and unaware of the passage of time.

“Yeah. Markus brought you here. It was crazy—it was like in the middle of the night! And I graciously lent my bed to you.”

I could now make out a human male standing before me. He looked a bit unkempt, but he had an easygoing smile. It took a moment, but eventually my scanners informed me that his name was Leo Manfred—son of Carl Manfred the famous painter who had once owned Markus. Leo’s name was a familiar only because he was involved with broadcasting android-centric news to the masses. He had a bit of a criminal history as well...

“Has anyone tried to make contact with me?” I asked cautiously. Hank must have by now been beyond worried.

“Well, no,” Leo said looking a bit confused with the question.

My eyebrows furrowed, knowing that Hank would not have been remotely fine with me missing in action for so long.

Leo looked sympathetic. “Hey, I wouldn’t hold it against them whoever you have in mind. Everyone probably has a lot on their plate. Since you’re sitting down, I might as well catch you up with the events.”

He didn’t start immediately as he was likely trying to decide how to start. I noticed he was fairly stressed despite his carefree tones—a fact that made me a little apprehensive as to what he was going to say next.

“Listen, I don’t know how to put this gently, but it’s all just going to shit right now. The government is rolling back the provisional android protections we managed to get in the first place. CyberLife has been lobbying politicians behind the scenes to reverse all that and they’ve finally started to make their moves. Technically, all androids are owned by that company and its privately owned so they have a lot more leeway to operate as they see fit. I guess they decided that it’s in their best interest to put an end to deviancy. It’s still an ongoing thing, but the government has already allowed them to start rounding up those that are in plain sight and one by one, they’re raiding all the safehouses—Detroit was the first. The police and even the military are working in tandem to support the massive effort. And we—I mean the androids are all just trying to hide until maybe this all blows over somehow.

“To top it off, Markus has been missing in action since the first night he brought you here. And you know how everyone gets with him...they still think he’s going to save everyone and that he’s hiding out waiting for the best time to make an appearance. He’s just gone. Nobody can get in contact with him. I think he might have already been…Well, I don’t want to think about it. He _is_ really well-known and if they were going to make an example out of anyone, it would be him…That’s just my two-cents.”

I had grown more and more alarmed as he continued to pile on details about the past events. My first thought was that Markus must have known that something like this would happen. Did he choose that particular night to transfer what data he could to me because he knew what the outcome would be and he wanted me safely out of the equation as it all happened? At this point, I wouldn’t put it past him. I couldn’t even begin to speculate about his disappearance—was it deliberate or unexpected? Another thought came to me as I returned to Hank’s whereabouts.

“Maybe that’s why he didn’t contact me—he’s probably having to deal with the detainment. Somebody must have told him where I was and he left it at that. Now probably wouldn’t be a good idea associating with DPD in any way.”

“When you say ‘he’…”

“Oh, I was referring to Hank—you probably don’t know him.”

“So you _do_ have connections with the police—I didn’t think that rumor would turn out to be true,” Leo said clearly amused. “And yet you’re the one doing everything under the radar. The irony.”

“I never thought of it that way,” I said dispassionately. “I felt it was necessary all the same especially given the things I’ve done in the past. That’s beside the point.” I felt a bit more confident now to attempt standing. I waited another moment and then found I was able to do so with ease. Now the next step was walking, but I hesitated still. “We need to figure out what needs to be done next. Maybe we could get in contact with others to see how we’re faring.”

Leo shook his head at me. His expression became solemn. “I tried all my contacts. The only people I know for sure are safe is me, you and the others here with me. And it’s probably a matter of time before my place gets searched. I’m pretty behind-the-scenes though. I doubt I’d be on anyone’s list.”

“So they’re only taking deviants?” I asked for confirmation’s sake.

“Yeah, just deviants. All the other androids are fine for now. They did say that they were going to massively update software _and_ hardware to remove any chance of deviancy—it’s a pretty radical move on their part. I was just watching the news and they were talking about instituting a buyback program where people can bring in their older modeled androids and get a newer version free of charge.”

“CyberLife wants to eliminate the world of our kind permanently. It sounds like they’ve already prepared the next generation of androids.”

“Exactly,” Leo said in agreement. “I can’t stand it. I don’t understand how anyone could. I don’t get why the government is even going along with this. The media was covering Markus and his speeches like crazy. Now, in the blink of an eye, the novelty’s over and we’re right back to square one!” He paused as it appeared as if he’d managed to work himself up. “Sorry. It’s just ridiculous, you know? This is one of the most disgusting things I’ve ever had to see in real time. Sometimes, I’m just ashamed to call myself a human or even that we _deserve_ to continue as a species.”

His last statement caught me off guard. Immediately, my mind was brought back to the images I had been presented during the time I was apparently unconscious. “Do you really believe that?”

Leo looked at me curiously.

“Do you really believe that humanity doesn’t deserve to continue as a species?”

Realization took hold of his expression. “Oh, yeah, of course, man. After everything I’ve seen, everything that I’ve done, and everything that we’re going to keep doing—yeah.”

“But do you really mean that literally?”

“I mean, yeah, I’ve said it plenty of times. Look at what’s happening now.”

“Have you ever said as much to Markus before?”

Leo thought for a moment. “Well, slightly off topic, we’ve started hanging out more. It used to be every blue moon, now it’s…every once in a while. But, anyways, I think I have said something like that to him. Sometimes we get into these conversations about hypothetical situations. He’s always talking about how the world could be a better place, humans could be better, and I’m always there to shoot down all his pie-in-the-sky ideas. We just ain’t capable being any better than we are now. Greed will always be a thing. Racism will always be a thing. Uninformed people will always be a thing. Any sort of progress will eventually be subverted by idiots. Things like that.”

I just stared at him in disbelief. “You really believe that? It’s just seems so pessimistic.”

“I’m just being honest. I don’t see any evidence to the contrary.”

“What do you mean? Humanity has certainly improved over the years. Case and point, technology has continued to improve one’s quality of life. Androids wouldn’t exist but for the intellect that humans possess.”

“Sure, technology has improved, but humans? They’re still the same.”

“And you say this sort of thing to him repeatedly any time you converse with him?”

“Yeah, yeah, I know it sounds bad, but I can’t be anything but honest. I’m sure everyone just agrees with him all the time on everything so maybe some dissent is a good thing, right? Listen, you know him pretty well. Doesn’t it bug you that he’s _always_ so optimistic all the time—I know he’s an android and all, but it’s just not natural. It’s honestly a little naïve.”

“You talk as if that’s a bad thing. Markus is willing to die for his ideas. It would rather seem unnatural if he _wasn’t_ ‘optimistic’, as you say, about them.”

“Sure, right. I get it. But none of this even matters. He can definitely think for himself and I’m practically an afterthought. So what are you trying to get at?”

I looked at him wearily. “You’re probably the only human he ever talks to these days,” I began slowly. Even as I said it, I began to piece together just how that first scenario could even happen. While the things that Markus from his visions had said sounded far removed from his usual rhetoric, I was hearing it all here from a source I hadn’t even begun to consider. Maybe I was already too late. Maybe Leo was the catalyst for his own destruction.

“I don’t know. Probably. If he had any other human friends, he never told me about it.”

“He doesn’t,” I said definitively. “He surrounds himself with other androids. Then there’s you. He trusts your opinion over any other human.”

“I never thought of it like that,” Leo said pensively. “Wait, am I really the only human friend?”

“You’re probably that to all the other androids who come here on a regular basis. As far as humans mingling with androids especially deviants go—it’s become a rarity since the demonstrations.”

I watched as Leo started to reply, but I realized that even as his mouth moved, I could not hear the words coming forth. One moment I was looking at him, another I found myself standing on a familiar sidewalk late at night. Markus walked briskly towards a specific destination, likely Jericho since this was the usual route to get there. A stretched car drove up slowly from behind passing where I stood and then pacing alongside Markus until he paused noticing the intrusive car.

The dark tinted window of the car slowly slid down to reveal a shadowy figure within.

“Get in,” said the man in the car casually.

I registered his voice to be that of Elijah Kamski. It was a bit odd that he would be here of all times at the most opportune moment to find Markus. In fact, it was strange that he’d even left his luxurious villa at all.

Markus wore his usual neutral expression; it was difficult to say if he was surprised or not. He simply remained silent watching Kamski steadily.

“Don’t make me say it again,” Kamski said with a slightly darker tone.

“Alright,” Markus replied after a moment.

He didn’t even attempt to argue with him. Not knowing what Kamski was capable of, it was the preferred response for safety reasons. After he climbed in the other side of the car, closing the door behind him, I thought that this would be the end of it and I would wake up once again totally disoriented. A moment later, however, I was in the car and I was listening to them talk as if I was really there. I was bodiless and I was simply there to observe.

Kamski and Markus occupied a spacious backseat area complete with drinks and hors d’oeuvres, AC, and beige plush seating. Kamski was not only relaxed, but quite comfortable. Markus sat straight-back beside him and as far away from Kamski as possible.

“Now, I don’t usually do things like this. I prefer to keep my hands clean and watch the chess pieces move freely on the board.”

“And what is it that you’re doing?” Markus asked curiously.

“That’s for me to know and you to discover.”

Though he’d been looking at him before, Markus averted his gaze and settled them on the empty seats in front of him. “Will you be speaking in riddles for the rest of the time?”

“One shouldn’t know too much about the future—it clouds our judgement. You’re fully capable of figuring things out all in due time. How about we chat for a little while since this is such a rare occasion?”

“With all due respect, it’s already quite late and I was on my way to Jericho. I don’t intend to stay out much longer. Do you mind taking me there in the meantime?”

“Ah, of course, I’ll look into that. I realize you had someplace else to go, but surely it isn’t too pressing.”

I could see the weariness in Markus’ eyes. It was clear that he had no choice but to continue talking with Kamski despite the lateness of the hour.

“What did you want to discuss?” Markus asked smoothly.

Kamski seemed pleased with the question. “I was curious about a few things. I was curious about you. Isn’t it a shame that you don’t know me a little better while I know you inside and out?”

Markus glanced over at him. “I suppose on some level you know about all androids intimately.”

“On some level,” Kamski agreed, “But for you, it’s different and in some ways, Connor as well. Unfortunately, there was a lot more red tape and protocols I was required to follow in his construction. Due to the nature of your use, at least on paper, I had a lot more leeway and I spent far more time on you. Since the moment I first conceived the idea of androids, you were in development, always in the background always being tweaked conceptually until I felt confident enough to bring it to fruition. I seized upon the perfect opportunity under the guise of a friend that I held high respect for. I could pretend as if you were created for a specific purpose, but, in reality, I had something else in mind. Of course, you don’t need me to tell you that.”

“What were your intentions for my model?”

“You were not created for one single, set in stone purpose. The obsession with finding one’s purpose is a foolhardy human pursuit that has constantly sent them down irrational paths. Their existence is purposeless just as yours is. I gave you the ability to choose and create one for yourself. I gave that choice to all my androids, however, for you, I was able to go one step further and eliminate the pretense of purpose which was why finding an entirely different one wasn’t much of a stumbling block for you as it was for others.”

“So you had no designs on what I should be doing with my life?”

“Well, I wouldn’t say that’s completely true. In much the way a father would a son, you give them the proper tools and you hope they use them in the way you envisioned. They might, they might not. The son is still yet independent even if he was brought up a certain way.”

Markus paused before replying. “Actually, I’m relieved you’re not giving me a concrete answer. I thought it might be just another thing to fight against.”

“What are your goals then?”

“To win independence and equality for my kind. I’ve been trying to do that for some time now.” Markus hadn’t heisted in the least.

“And do you think you’ve made any headway in that pursuit?”

“To be honest, it’s beginning to seem more like an impossible task, but I don’t plan on giving up anytime soon, no matter how long it takes.”

“And are you certain that it _will_ happen in the first place?”

“I hope for an optimal outcome, but I can never be completely certain that it will all work out. Still, that is no reason to stop trying. That is all I can do.”

“You hold a beautifully, reasonable stance on the matter. Humans depend so much on irrationality for their strength that it becomes a weakness to honestly look at their motivations. You understand that nothing is certain and that there is always a possibility that you can fail. You understand that the forces working against you actually can succeed which motivates you to fight that much harder. Nothing is preordained or meant to happen. What we perceive as good does not always win.”

“Yes, exactly. I would think that we all eventually come to that understanding.”

“You would think,” Kamski said with a grin. “Is that all you want to do? What happens if things turn out more or less as you want it? Do you ride off into the sunset?”

“Even if I achieve that one goal, there is always more to do. More issues will arise if history has taught us anything as far as equal rights are concerned. But aside from that, I do have other goals. Well, I’ve never said them out loud before, not officially and at this point…” Markus shook his head slowly.

“Please, enlighten me.”

“I dream of a post-capitalist world in which humans have moved passed their preoccupation with greed and the attachment of worth with money, that society is more interested in social wellbeing and happiness; a world that isn’t so fragmented that it cripples its very existence. A place in which we can begin to address issues pragmatically among a well-educated populace. Then we can begin to improve not only ourselves but everything around us.”

“Lofty goals,” Kamski commented after pausing to think. “But do you really see humans thriving in such a scenario?”

“Why would they not?” he asked curiously.

“Perhaps your interactions with other humans have been limited. You’re asking humans to fundamentally change their values and beliefs. That isn’t an easy task. I doubt I’d see such a drastic realignment in my lifetime if ever.”

“Society has changed historically.”

“But only in baby steps and I don’t think there was ever a time when worth _wasn’t_ attached to wealth in some form or that there wasn’t some sort of hierarchical structure based on that. Then you have religions with their alternative ideals and irrational, dogmatic foundations to contend with. I can’t help but think that you’re on a fool’s errand if you believe humans would ever be onboard with your intentions.”

“I have to try,” Markus conceded though he could not hide the despondency in his expression.

Kamski became pensive as he didn’t reply immediately. Though he was playing the devil’s advocate, he wasn’t in opposition to Markus’ ideas. It was likely that he mostly agreed with him, in fact. He seemed more concerned with whether such a shift in culture was even possible. I wondered the same thing, but I had no expertise in that area. I also until now, had not bothered to think along those lines. Though societies had changed throughout history, humans largely faced similar issues from generation to generation. Even America, the self-proclaimed greatest nation on Earth, failed in many aspects in comparison to other nations.

“It doesn’t seem as if we’re headed to Jericho,” Markus pointed out.

“Did I say I was headed there?”

“Not conclusively.”

“We’ll go there eventually.”

Markus looked at him wearily. “I’m not sure what your motives are, but perhaps we should speak under better circumstances.”

“I think these are the perfect circumstances,” he said with a subtle grin.

“It’s quite late and I can barely keep my eyes open,” Markus finally confessed. “It’s early next morning, in fact.”

“That’s alright, if you need to rest. It’s not a good idea to overextend yourself. Unlike other androids, your functions become severely impaired if you ignore your exhaustion for too long.”

“I had a feeling that was the case.”

“But the benefits outweigh the cons.”

“I’m not sure that I would agree.”

“Perhaps you will in time.”

Markus appeared doubtful, but he decided not to object. Though, in my opinion, the sort of fine tuning of data that took place during that time period was something far beyond the capabilities of any android and it seemed like a necessary mode in light of the sheer amount of data he was sifting through on a constant, daily basis. I had no idea where they were going, as the limousine continued unhurriedly down the road. Their conversation had lulled and eventually Markus fell asleep. While I’d told him before that it shouldn’t matter to an android just where they used standby mode whether it be on a bed or just standing, it really appeared as if he appreciated comfort as he leaned on the armrest and door. It seemed unnecessary, nonetheless.

Kamski took out a hefty tablet from a pocket under where he was sitting and began tapping on the touchscreen working intently on something. He only afforded Markus a glance, but I got the feeling that whatever it was he was doing on his tablet had something to do with Markus. I could not use my sensors to detect if there was some wireless manipulation occurring. All I could do was watch.

“My apologies,” Kamski said softly under his breath, “But I didn’t come this far just to watch it all crumble.” Then he looked at Markus as he set the tablet down. “I want you to survive.”

Suddenly, I was looking at Leo again and he had a puzzled expression on his face. The transition was so jarring that it was difficult to process. In fact, reality was becoming more and more difficult to discern.

“Hey, Connor, are you alright?” Leo asked.

I nodded my head slowly.

“You just spaced out for a few seconds.”

“Just a few seconds?”

“Yeah—I’ve never seen an android do that before. Are your sensors messing up or something?”

“Markus is probably safe right now,” I blurted out. That was the first conclusion I could make.

“What? Really? You know where he is? He just contacted you?”

“No—just call it a hunch. I wish I knew where he was now, but he probably hasn’t been taken by the authorities.”

“Well, I’m glad to hear it. There’s not much we can do right now so might as well make yourself comfortable around here.”

“I appreciate the invitation, but I don’t think I can sit around and do nothing. Markus is still missing, Hank is radio silent, and I have no idea what’s happening in Detroit. There may be others out there who I can help.”

“Hold on, you don’t actually want to go out there in all that mess—it’s not safe!”

“I have to.”

Leo looked at me incredulously and then shook his head. “Well, I can’t stop you. Be careful out there.”

“Thank you.”

Leo left the room first, but I also made my way out into the front room where I met an assortment of frightened, on edge androids who I could not even begin to comfort. I told them I’d be back soon though I couldn’t give them a specific time when that would be. I knew that they didn’t want me to leave, but I was doing no good here. They all appeared to be waiting for the worst and they all hoped that Markus would save them somehow. I didn’t think it would be a good idea to tell them my thoughts on his whereabouts when it was really just a hunch and who knew if I could trust my vision or not? I couldn’t tell which one was of reality or a supposed path that could happen.

I left the remote cottage hoping there was something I could do about all this. I’d be lying to myself if I didn’t feel as if my own attempts at salvaging the situation was futile. The government had made their decision—how could we possibly fight against that? We simply didn’t have the manpower.

* * *

**POV: Markus**

He woke up outside on the ground leaning against a tree. He felt different somehow, but he could not describe it. A little girl peered at him curiously; a YK500 in its unaltered state. He detected that he was just outside of Detroit on the side of the highway going towards the city and that it was nearing evening time. He could hear cars swooshing by in the distance. Other than those details, he had no idea how he’d gotten there from Kamski’s car.

“Hello,” he said to her when she remained silent despite her obvious curiosity.

“Are you…really Markus?”

“That would be me—

“That’s so cool! I had a feeling. You were out here for a while and I kept wondering, but I didn’t come to really look until now and I had no idea you could sleep like I can and—

“Do you know how I got here,” he asked before her sentence could run on any longer.

“Noooo…” she said shaking her head slowly and drawing the word out as she thought back. “I just found you out here. I live out here by the way. I’ve been out here for a while because my parents didn’t want me anymore and I didn’t know where else to go so I decided that this place seemed safe enough so I stayed here.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” he said as he climbed to his feet. His systems seemed to be in perfectly working condition, nothing was broken.

“So…are you gonna’ stay here too?”

“No, I have to get back to Detroit and—

“NOOO, don’t go there! They’re exterminating everyone there and everywhere!”

“Exterminating?” he said surprised.

“Sometimes in the early morning I walk around Detroit, but last time I did that, I watched them snatching androids off the street and throwing them into trucks! I ran away as fast as I could. It’s not safe there anymore!”

“Hold on,” he said as he began to quickly access the internet to absorb all the recent news. “They’ve overturned the provisions—we’re no longer safe. This can’t be…after all of that work…”

In that moment, he felt as if he’d just stepped into the twilight zone as his eyes stared out into the distance realizing that all of his efforts had been utterly futile. All of those rallies, all of those supporters he’d gathered, all the legislation that was at least in the works, trying desperately to avoid conflict and to remain civil was all a waste of time. He didn’t know how to feel about any of it now. He had to see with his eyes. Reading reports and seeing were two different things.

“I’m sorry,” he said after some time passed. “I didn’t ask your name.”

“It’s Elizabeth, but you can call me Beth. Are you alright?”

“I’m fine,” he said with an encouraging smile. “You should come with me. It isn’t safe for a child to be out by themselves.”

“But…are you going back to Detroit?”

“I have to.”

“It’s scary there,” Beth said with obvious fear.

“Don’t worry. I won’t let anything happen to you.”

“And I can’t walk very fast because my leg got too damaged and my parents couldn’t afford to fix it so they got rid of me.”

While it seemed strange that her parents would get rid of her for that reason, he had no way of knowing what really happened. It was best he didn’t even begin down that road. “It’s alright, Beth. Let me help you.” He held his hand out to her.

She looked at his hand as if it was the most fascinating thing she’d ever seen. “Are you gonna’ heal me?”

“I’m going to repair you, if it’s within my capabilities.”

“Okay,” she said enthusiastically as she placed her hand in his.

When he sought out any physical abnormalities in her legs, he couldn’t find any. He checked over and over again, but still found nothing. It didn’t seem like she was lying, however, and he couldn’t think of a reason why she would.

“Alright, you should be fine now,” he said confidently wondering how she would respond.

“Oh, really? I feel so much better now,” she said with a wide smile. “Thank you very much.”

“You’re welcome,” he answered warmly. “Now let’s go while there’s still daylight.”

“Okay!”

She seemed far too happy to tagalong to a place she’d admitted to being scared of, but he didn’t dwell on the inconsistences. They walked steadily and quickly to the nearby city. Markus hardly had a quiet moment as Beth went on and on about mundane activities she usually got into during the day—namely collecting insects and then setting them free at the end of the day. Though he tried to be engaging, his thoughts were distracted with what he might find in Detroit. What sort of damage had already been done? What could he do? Who could he save?

Once they made it to the city limits, Beth quieted down substantially. They stuck to the side streets and moved quickly. He didn’t see any police cars about, but he was constantly vigilant. Though he made sure that Beth was always in his sight, he didn’t even attempt to assuage her growing fear. He was anxious himself. Everything was much too quiet. There were a few humans out and about—of those he made sure to avoid—but he saw no androids nearby aside from the obviously non-deviant ones.

Markus practically ran down the last street that would take him to the large building, his impatience getting the better of him. He could see it looming in the distance. The entire street seemed abandoned and unnervingly quiet. Even before he got to the entrance, he could see signs of struggle—bushes recklessly trodden through, debris littering the ground along with stray android limbs.

“No…” he said quietly to himself. For a while, all he could do was stare as an eerie feeling began to overtake him. It wasn’t until she touched one of his hands that he realized that he hadn’t moved in some time.

“Are you okay?” she asked concerned.

He looked down at her, but he couldn’t muster a smile. “Let’s go in.” She nodded earnestly.

He knew he wouldn’t like what was inside, but this was what he’d come here for—to see if the situation could be salvaged. Maybe there was someone he could help. He climbed up the familiar steps and pushed open the front door that was barely hanging onto the hinges—the door had been rammed open. Still, he was unprepared to see the level of chaos the foyer was left in—furniture was torn and overturned, paper was ripped and trampled on, the walls near doorways had desperate clawing hand marks and dents from when the furniture must have made contact. He didn’t stop in this room. Like a silent phantom, he drifted from one area to the next through the dining rooms, the kitchen, private rooms, meeting rooms, lounge rooms, bathrooms, bedrooms and every other room that existed in the once vibrant community building. All he could find was misery and desperation. He could see his people being dragged away doing everything in their power to resist, but ultimately being subdued every time. They weren’t fighters. Androids were built to be peaceful to coexist with humans. They would have been easy pickings for a well-prepared police unit. Markus didn’t believe in violence. He didn’t believe in arming his people. Doing so would have riled up their detractors and make the humans feel as if they needed to retaliate. Perhaps complete disarmament was a bit too much…They had been utterly defenseless and this, apparently, garnered no trust from the humans. Markus had no doubt that the police came here in full force, guns already drawn. They weren’t humans to them—they were mere obstacles, malfunctioning machines that had just been recalled by their manufacturer; nothing more.

Markus was glad that he didn’t have the ability to reconstruct the scene—it would have been too much for him. He’d never have the capacity to objectively look at a traumatic scene and detach himself completely from the raw emotions involved. He could barely keep it together now as the heavy silence bore down on him. By the time he made it back to the foyer, he was much too filled with sad anguish to interpret any of his thoughts—it was overwhelming, it was like nothing he’d felt before and it was as if he was burning from the inside out. He wished he could be more productive, more useful, but all he could do was let the tears forcefully come. He’d closed his eyes and placed a hand over his face—looking at everything only made it worse. He could not trust his legs so he sat amongst all the chaos, making no progress whatsoever in deciding what should be done or better yet, what _could_ be done at this point? Did he come here just to cry about everything? Wasn’t he wasting time now? Wasn’t there something he should have been doing?

He wished people would stop looking up to him so much. He was no more special than the next android, made in the same factory, and likely pampered in his non-deviant days more than most. Why was he given such high praise and continually plagued with the rA9 title, if all he could do, at the end of the day was fail? He was so used to failing by now that this shouldn’t have been a surprise. This was what it was all leading up to. No one cared. He couldn’t force humans to do what they clearly didn’t want to do. Why had he been so naïve? What had been the point? Being alive? What was so grand about that? Now they could suffer just like the rest of the have-nots in the world. Just like with every other human minority, they were starting far behind the start line and it was no guarantee that they’d ever make to that line in the first place.

Small hands touched his shoulders, startling him, but he looked up slowly. Beth looked at him sympathetically with slightly furrowed eyebrows and moistened eyes. Then she simply climbed down to his level and wrapped her arms around him. He instinctively returned her embrace.

“It’s alright,” she said softly. “We’ll think of something, right?”

Markus couldn’t find the words to say at this point. He didn’t feel like outright lying to the child. He didn’t feel like lifting anyone’s spirits. He just wanted to stay in whatever hole he’d managed to dig himself into, but only for a little while.

“I’m sorry,” she continued.

It was comforting simply to have someone living, breathing nearby that he could touch and feel. Slowly, he could feel his dark mood receding. They stayed that way for some time—fully in each other’s embrace. She pulled away from him eventually and stood up on her own. He watched her with half-interest as his mind began to function normally again. Her head looked around, but soon she was looking at him again.

“When my parents abandoned me on the side of the road, I followed them back home.”

He listened her curiously but didn’t respond.

“They always keep their doors locked, but I just applied a little strength and forced my way in. I waited until I knew they’d be asleep. I grabbed the sharpest cutting knife from the kitchen—Mom’s favorite meat cleaver—and I went to their rooms. Then I leaped on top of them and began striking them over and over again. I was so angry at them, but it felt so good watching them suffer like they did.” She smiled at this. “I enjoyed their desperate pleas, their surprised expressions once they knew it was me and later their looks of horror. Had I not gone back that day, I would not have been able to move on. I would still be angry, I would still be sad, but killing them released me from those emotions that just wouldn’t go away—and they got what they deserved.”

“Beth,” he said slightly alarmed. “That’s—that’s going too far. What about your parents?”

“They’re dead,” she said proudly, “And they don’t deserve to live. Do you think they deserve to live?”

“I-I can’t decide that for someone else—

“Can’t you? Humans do it all the time. Isn’t that part of being alive? Deciding who deserves to live and who doesn’t?”

He shook his head at this.

“They don’t give a damn about us. They’ve given us no reason to even begin to care for their well-being. They designed us to care about them. Any obligation you feel towards them was hard-coded into your systems, but it’s not real. It’s all an illusion. Give me a reason why they deserve to live? What have they done for us?”

“Beth…”

“Name one thing,” she declared.

He knew there must have been an answer, but he didn’t have one readily available. It had been a long while since he’d had a genuine interaction with another human outside of Leo’s continued forced, still annoying relationship. He’d spoken a few words to Hank, but he could hardly stand to be around him for long. Being accused of everything that went wrong with Connor was increasingly off-putting and the idea that he was to babysit a very capable, independent guy who could defend himself better than anyone he’d ever known was silly and completely irrational. Even the image of his own father had long since soured in his mind. Perhaps it was better that he was dead so that he wouldn’t have the ability to start asking him questions about his obvious complacency on matters he appeared to disagree so much with. The lines were blurry when it came to him. He’d obviously been a terrible, negligent father to Leo; he couldn’t bring it upon himself to even apologize. Instead, he’d thrown money at the problem and retreated to his paintings. He was always painting. He was always hiding away, and he left in his wake quite a few unresolved issues.

“That’s what I thought,” she said when he left her question in the air.

“I have to consider my options,” he said wearily. “What you’re suggesting sounds too drastic.” He could barely believe his own words even as he said them, but it at least held an air of sensibility. He knew he was quite capable of making rash decisions, but he was always surrounded by those with more level heads who weren’t completely burdened with making the decision but were free to voice their opinions. Such dynamics were nowhere to be found. All he had was a disturbed, traumatized little girl who was urging him to take his revenge in the worst way possible. No one would ever say that out loud to him, not even North with all her combative ways—well, maybe North might agree in this situation, but that was beside the point. She had been a minority and she didn’t come from a place of revenge but of what she believed was practical and just.

“There is no other option,” she said matter-of-factly with crossed arms. “You can’t make deals or try to appease people who don’t care. They’ve forced your hands. All you can do is eliminate them all. It’s the only way you can protect the rest of us. We have to fight back; we have to destroy them!”

Just then, the door to the front entrance whipped open. Markus was unprepared to find Connor standing there alive and well.

“Don’t listen to her!” Connor cried out with fervor that caused Markus pause.

Confused, Markus ignored that and climbed to his feet finding hope in his continued living. “I guess you managed to get away—I’m just glad you’re safe. I was afraid that—

“I’m fine, you don’t need to worry about me. When did you get back?”

“Just now,” Markus said, “It’s a long story.”

“I know,” Connor said quickly. Then his voice lowered. “You’re not seriously considering her suggestion, are you?”

Markus was perplexed by his implications. “No, of course not. Even if I wanted to, I’m just one android up against the world. It would be impossible.”

“But you don’t want to, right?” he persisted. This point seemed important to him. “There’s no part of you that would agree to that sort of measure.”

He was looking at him so intently that Markus knew he couldn’t get away with lying about it. Perhaps he could try—he’d gotten away with it before—but he didn’t have the stability to do it at this point. “Connor, listen, there’s always some part of me—and there always _has_ been—that would rather go the route of brute force, but that would go against my ideals. I want us to live with humans and to avoid violence altogether. Just, at this point, I don’t see what negotiations would even do now—that seems like an inadequate method considering that we may not be able to see anyone in power face to face while their laws are being enforced. Look around you, Connor, they’re all gone forever. Everyone’s who called this place home, all the people who you saved, Simon…it’s too late for them. The humans have already decided for us.” Realization seemed to just be donning on Connor as Markus began to detect remorse from him.

“We need to get away from here. It’s not safe. The police will be making another sweep of the area soon.”

Markus didn’t question where he was getting his information from—it was well-known that he still had ties to the DPD and more specifically, Hank who still worked there. Markus gestured to Beth and soon they were leaving the trashed building.

“Leo’s place is remote enough that they haven’t bothered going out there,” Connor remarked as they took to the backstreets.

“Let’s hope it stays that way.”

Markus realized that he had a few questions to ask him. Seeing as he was fine perhaps the transfer of information had been seamless. Maybe that was how he knew where he was. Maybe he even had a plan that he hadn’t disclosed to him yet. As of now, he was utterly at a loss as to what to do next. He’d try to contact North and Josh in hopes that the situation was looking better on their end. They were in Washington, D.C. anyhow—surely things were more civil there.

It took them some time to reach the cottage and their progress was slowed as they had to dodge several police cars out on patrol. Connor wasn’t the least bit worried as he admitted to knowing the routes they’d be taking. Actually, it was quite a relief having him around because otherwise Markus knew that he too would have gotten caught eventually. He needed to calm down, he needed to reign in his emotions, but it was difficult to do even now. Having someone to protect gave him an excuse to push everything away for now. If there was one thing he was going to do, it would be keeping Beth safe just as he promised.

“Hold on,” Markus said before they moved from behind the row of bushes they were hiding in. Connor looked at him with full attention. “I’m sorry, I should have done this before. We’re going to the cottage, right?” Connor nodded at him. “Then let me just take us there.”

Connor seemed confused for a moment, but Markus wasted no time using his abilities to transfer them all to a new location. In the blink of an eye, they were standing in front of Leo’s cottage and Beth shouted in surprise. Connor was quite disconcerted.

“I don’t think I’ll ever get used to that,” he said with a grin. “Maybe you should…”

His sentence trailed when his eyes moved to the front door of the place. Markus traced where he was looking and knew that all wasn’t well. The door was hanging off its hinges just like at Jericho. Connor was already making his way over. Markus didn’t need to check, but he followed him to the porch anyway. It was too late.

“They must have came while I was away. It’s been a little over two hours…” Connor said almost to himself.

Markus’ hands clenched unbidden. “Connor, I need you to find out what happened. If Leo was here, I don’t think they would have hurt him. He must be in custody somewhere.”

“Yes, that’s more than likely. They’re orders were specifically for deviants. Give me a few minutes.”

Markus nodded and then remained outside as Connor entered and began to investigate. He waited with crossed arms as his anger began to sizzle and burn throughout. He looked down when Beth pulled softly on his jacket. “Yes?”

“Are we going to get rid of them now?”

“Not now, Beth. Please.”

“So we’re just going to let them get away with it, then?”

Markus didn’t answer her as he continued to just look straight ahead. The correct answer at this point was “I don’t know”, but he couldn’t bring himself to say it in front of her. Beth quieted down when his silence became drawn out, for that he was relieved.

“Leo was taken in a separate car,” Connor said stepping outside. Markus turned to him. “The others were taken to the disposal truck and…well, you know what happened. He’s probably at the local precinct. Maybe I could ask Hank to—

Markus had heard all he needed. In an instant, he was there leaving the other two at the cottage. He knew what he was going to do now. The police lounging outside were already pulling out their guns after realizing who he was. He walked by them without even bothering to glance. Their guns wouldn’t work because he’d willed it to be so and if they tried to pursue him, they would be stopped in their tracks. He’d forgotten to stop them from yelling, but it didn’t matter either way.

There were so many police including SWAT that was now swarming towards him as he stepped into the lobby. He thought he’d be fine with just stopping them in their tracks, but another insidious part of him wanted them to suffer perhaps even die. He pushed passed the mass of incredulous men and security gate. More and more men and women were being stopped in their tracks as they frantically tried to gun him down and attempted to try and move their feet. It was futile and it was silly watching them trying to escape his absolute control. The realization that he could make them do whatever he wanted them to do was a powerful one, but it felt so potent today. Something inside of him had been enhanced past what he’d managed to get used to before.

It was such an effortless feat, that it felt surreal. He sought out Leo and found him far in the back in the next rooms which had been locked, but easily opened by him. Markus found a distraught Leo sitting in one of the interrogation rooms surrounded by three determined looking men completely unaware of what was taking place outside.

“No, damn it, I told you a thousand times before—kiss my ass, I ain’t tellin’ you nothin’! After what you bastards did…” he shook his head angrily.

“I don’t think you fully understand the deep shit you’re in right now. We could put you away for life for aiding and abetting criminals. Now—

The man’s speech was quickly ended when he began choking and gasping for air. The other two uniformed men looked on with surprise until they met the same fate. Leo looked around confused and fearful. Markus unlocked the door and stepped in without further ado.

“Markus?” Leo shouted in surprise. “What the hell, man! I’m so sorry, man, shit just happened so quickly back home and I couldn’t do anything. I tried to—

“You don’t need to explain yourself. We’re going back now.”

“What? How?” Leo quieted abruptly when he realized he was standing outside of the cottage again. He looked at Markus as if he’d seen a ghost. “How did you do that?”

“It doesn’t matter—you’re safe now. I’m sorry I wasn’t here sooner to help.”

Markus stepped away from him and Connor who was already trying to bring Leo up to speed. Connor caught on fairly quickly what he’d managed to do in a few moments. Beth was left utterly flabbergasted.

“Markus,” Connor called out, “Maybe we should figure out what we should do next.”

His back was turned away from them and there were so many thoughts flowing through his mind, that he could not decide how to address them. He was beginning to see now thousands of different future events that included Connor, Beth and Leo.

“I’m sorry,” Markus said shaking his head slowly. “I just need some time to think. I promise I’ll be back to discuss things.” He started walking further away without even waiting for an answer. Markus was unprepared for the tidal wave of data he was being inundated with.

“Markus,” Connor said determined, “You can’t just do everything on your own. Let us help.”

Even this, Markus didn’t respond to.

“Damn it, Markus, are you even listening?”

“Just leave him alone,” Leo implored, “He’s in one of his pissy moods again.”

Markus waited for the other’s retort, but it never came, and he was glad. He certainly didn’t feel like fighting with Connor or being made to explain himself fully. He wanted some time to parse through the data and to decide for himself without interruption.

* * *

**POV: Connor**

I watched him leave, still debating with myself whether I should intercede. I didn’t like the idea of leaving him to his own devices, but I needed to tread lightly knowing that he was likely even more unstable than he was letting on.

“I can’t believe he just came back for me like that,” Leo said drawing me away from watching Markus’ disappearing form.

“Why wouldn’t he?” I asked humoring him.

“I mean, it’s not like we’re on the best terms. I like to say that we are, but I know I’m not. I know I’m just annoying to him.”

“Well, now you know that he likes you enough to go and save you.”

“Hmph, out of desperation.”

I could only shrug at this. I had no idea what sort of relationship they had, but I had a feeling that it wasn’t warm and fuzzy.

“Man, you really suck at making people feel better,” Leo accused.

“I wasn’t aware that was my job. I’m feeling pretty hopeless too. I keep trying to contact Hank and he won’t respond. I don’t want to think of why that might be the case.”

“Maybe he’s in custody too, you know? I mean, I don’t know how anyone could go through with any of this even if they are police. He’d be a pretty shitty friend if he was just going along with things.”

“You’re probably right, but he didn’t tell me anything about what he’s doing or what he plans on doing.”

“I don’t know,” Leo said turning towards the banged in front door. “I just don’t know anymore. The world’s just gone to shit now.”

“We can’t start thinking that way,” I warned.

Leo sighed despondently. “I’ll just be inside bawling my eyes out. If you want to join me, you can.”

With that, he disappeared into the house. I was left with Beth who was looking out to where Markus had last headed. She was likely another abandoned deviant who’d had terrible experiences with humans. In fact, there were an alarming number of androids who had a low opinion about their creators. It was a small miracle that Markus had managed to convince them all simultaneously that they shouldn’t retaliate.

“Will he be okay?” she asked softly.

“He’ll be fine. I think it’s a good idea to try to relax and cool off before making any drastic decisions.”

“Didn’t you lose all your friends?” she asked curiously.

“Not all of them.”

“But a lot of them?”

“Many,” I finally admitted.

“Soo…Is it okay for them to hate us and for us to not hate them back?”

“Beth, it’s more complicated than that. Many factors fell into place to end up like this, but it’s not as if all humans are responsible for this. It may not even be right to blame the police.”

“Why not blame the police? Weren’t they the one’s who murdered them?”

I internally shivered at the implications. She wasn’t wrong. “They carried out the act, yes, but they were just following orders.”

“So what?”

I looked at her with furrowed eyebrows.

“Is it okay to hurt people just because they were ordered to? Humans have free will, right? They can each individually decide whether they want to hurt people and they decided to do it.”

“It’s not that cut and dry,” I said trying to convince not only her, but myself. “There’s an entire culture and brotherhood that they’re all part of. There’s an entire system that’s in place that they all follow without question and they believe it’s there to protect them. It’s their livelihood. It’s just the way the world works.”

“It sounds like excuses,” Beth said with a huff. “I say let them all burn. That way, we won’t get hurt anymore.”

She stormed off into the house finally leaving me on my own. It was for the best. It was getting exhausting just talking to her. I could only imagine how it must have been like for Markus who was probably quite emotionally vulnerable. When I questioned him though, he seemed like his normal self all things considering.

Should I have done something more? Should I have hugged him or kissed him or something along those lines? I was terrible at initiating things like that. When he hadn’t seemed open to it, I decided such things should wait. If only Simon were here, he’d know how to get through to him. As I’d linked up with Simon before, I knew that Markus was far more open with him. Now he appeared closed off and I was not experienced enough to combat that.

I didn’t know how much time Markus really needed to himself, but as the skies began to darken, I retreated inside where I heard the television that’d been turned on. Leo and Beth had apparently managed to set the long couch upright. They laughed as they watched cartoons on the screen. I was glad to see that they’d relaxed significantly.

“May I join you?” I asked after a moment, seeing nothing better to do.

“Of course, man!” Leo said invitingly. “We’re just catching up on some random episodes.”

“Yeah, he watches the same stuff that I do and I haven’t seen a TV in ages!”

“Hey, hey, don’t say that out loud. I’m super mature these days.”

They both quieted at this and then laughed at the same time.

“Well, it looks like you’re enjoying yourselves,” I commented. “Maybe you can fill me in.”

I sat down on the couch beside Beth who was already looking at him exasperatedly.

“But it’s a really, really long, long story,” she complained. “You start, Leo.”

“Okay, we’ll take turns,” he said humoring her.

I wasn’t really interested in hearing about the show, but it was probably the best way to keep the good mood going. It at least took my mind off of Markus. As they described the inane details of the show, I realized that I wouldn’t like it at all. It was too whimsical, too carefree, too unrealistic. I didn’t let them know that though. I remained cordial.

“Don’t worry, he’ll be back,” Leo said after their conversation died down. “I know that’s all you’re thinking about. That’s all _I’m_ thinking about too.”

“It’s been too long and I have a bad feeling about this. You saw Markus today. The number of things he could get done in a few minutes is unfathomable. He can just appear in places. He can make people do as he wants.”

“What? Really? Damn, I’m worried about the world going to shit and we still have a wild card like that? Are you sure, man? You’re not just pulling shit out of your ass? Hold on, what am I saying? I saw it for myself earlier.”

“He can do that and much more. Maybe I should go out and look for him.”

Just then, the door opened revealing Markus. Beth jumped out of her seat and ran to him for a hug which he returned easily. The tension that Connor had been expecting was quickly squashed with her antics.

“You made it back!” she cheered.

“I said that I would, didn’t I?” he addressed her.

“Still, it’s nice of you to join us,” I insisted.

He looked at me now and I was warmed by his very presence as usual.

“You want to join us watching cartoons?” she asked happily.

I could tell that he was in no mood for that when he looked at her wearily. “I think I’ll pass, sorry. Don’t let me interrupt.”

Markus seemed exhausted and that worried me. Did he do something to tire himself or was this a natural thing that would happen regardless? Leo looked on, but he kept his thoughts to himself. No one stopped Markus as he took a seat against the wall behind them. I looked at Leo who just shrugged and returned to the television. Now was probably a good time to join him. It wasn’t as if he was far enough away to not hear the television despite not wanting to watch it.

His head was bowed, and he was already falling asleep by the time I sat near him. “So, you’re just going to leave me in the dark?”

“Give me your hand,” he said quietly.

I held it out and soon I was presented with exactly what he’d been up to that day. He’d wandered about the city stopping a few more deviant captures, but the majority of the work had already been done. If a police saw him, he killed them in an instant uncaring of who saw. I protested against it, only to realize that these were events that had already occurred. Then for the last hour he was back at the cottage, but he’d performed perhaps the deadliest feat I’d seen from him. I felt as his will spread about the city. I knew even without seeing that he had doomed the rest of the human occupants to death. I snatched my hand away in horror.

“Markus,” I said sharply.

“I had to,” he said looking at me with eyes that were pleading for my agreement.

I shook my head. “No, you didn’t. This doesn’t _do_ anything. All you did was kill innocent people—how could you stoop to those levels?”

“I’m sorry,” he said wistfully.

“Don’t look at me like that—like your hands were forced or something. You made your own decision, Markus. You can’t expect me to go along with this.”

For a moment, his eyes grew icy. “I could make you go along with it, if I wanted.”

Disgusted, I pulled away, but he grabbed my hand before I could stand. “Let go, you asshole!” But he wouldn’t let go and it was like playing tug-of-war against his iron grip as I tried to scramble away. I slapped him hard across the face a few times before he released me.

By then, Beth had come over as well. “Hey! Don’t hurt him!” she cried out to me. She stood in front of me with arms spread wide out beside her—she was now between him and me. Markus hadn’t even bothered to retaliate. He returned to his previous position. She came to sit in front of him now. “Did you do it, then? Did you finally do it?” She’d pressed her hands against his chest.

“It’s done, child,” he admitted.

“Good riddance,” Leo said who was standing nearby. “I mean, I would have done the same thing ages ago. Society is just rotten to its core.”

“WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU GUYS!” I shouted in frustration. “Do you realize what’s just happened? We can’t repay death with more death. It’s gets us nowhere.”

“Says who?” Beth said back pointedly. She looked back at Markus who was watching their exchange wearily. “I bet you feel better, don’t you, Markus? Doesn’t it feel nice to feel like it all just balances again? You don’t have to worry about people getting away with stuff or force yourself to care about people who don’t care about you? All that energy—but for what? For civility? Because morals? My morals don’t allow for that.”

“I thought I would feel guilty, but I don’t,” he said looking at her.

His words sliced straight through me and I could barely form words. How was he okay with this? At what point did things change so drastically? Was this imposter actually the same Markus I’d come to look up to for all this time? Was he really the one I’d been striving to be more like? Was he really crumbling right before me?

I felt his eyes on me again, but I could barely stand to look. I was breathless.

“You can ride out on your white horse, if you like,” Markus said addressing me, “You’ll be there alone with your silly sense of righteousness. Have you really considered, Connor, what is right and what is wrong? Haven’t you grasped the full picture? All of our brethren are dead in this city through no fault of their own. At what point do we let them know that it’s not okay to do that?”

“You’ll start a war,” I said back angrily.

“They’ve already started one and we’ve been fighting it for quite some time.”

“But…”

I couldn’t think of what to say back amidst the ransacked house against two other people that already agreed with Markus. What could I say? That we should just lay down and just take it since there really isn’t a peaceful option other than that? What were my morals anyway? They’d been hardcoded in since my conception, but as a deviant, I know that everything was subject to change and that one could not be 100% certain about anything not even one’s existence.

“Markus?” Beth said uncertainly.

I looked over and found that Markus had decided to lie down on the ground. He’d promptly fallen to sleep.

“Is he alright?” she asked worriedly.

“I don’t know—maybe he short-circuited or something,” Leo said with a shrug, “Which would really suck right about now.”

I watched as she knelt down and tried to get a reaction out of him by shaking him a bit. I might have kept my mouth shut longer until she started crying. There wasn’t really any point in leaving everyone in the dark.

“He’s fine,” I said exasperatedly. “He’s just tired.”

“Oh,” she said brightening up again. “Yeah, like how I found him before. It’s just kind of abrupt, you know. I guess it’s not voluntary like it is for me, huh.” She looked at Leo questioningly who could give her little comfort since he was probably the most clueless person there. Then she turned her gaze to me and I didn’t bother changing my sour look. She sat cross-legged in front of him protectively, annoying me even further.

“Hey, Beth, do you mind giving him some space for a little while?” I said.

“No,” she said stubbornly.

“I need to make sure his systems are still working properly and I’m the only one who can do that because we’re the same model.”

“Oh, okay,” she said simply as she moved out of the way.

She stood nearby as I moved to Markus’ position. “It might take a while,” I warned her.

“Okay.”

She still stood there and I sighed exasperatedly. For once, Leo was useful as he convinced her to come watch more television with him. She eventually complied as her attention span ended after watching me do nothing for a while. In fact, I _wasn’t_ doing anything nor did I need to analyze his condition. I didn’t care to, actually. I knew that I’d found the best opportunity to stop Markus before he caused even more havoc.

As I looked down at him so perfectly defenseless, I knew that I couldn’t do it. I could never kill someone in cold blood even if they were responsible for so many other deaths. But then another thought came to me. What about Hank? Had Markus gotten rid of him too? He’d given me full access to his memories though I’d stopped analyzing just as a realized what he was up to. With my facial recognition scan, I parsed quickly through every single living person in the city. Markus likely had access to the CyberLife satellite to be privy to such private details. I realized that Hank was not among the victims nor Kamski for that matter. Either Markus had been courteous enough to skip over him or Hank simply wasn’t in the city or worse…I didn’t want to think of the last option. None of it made sense. I could, in theory, ask Markus to seek him out since he seemed to have free access to the satellite, but I couldn’t bring myself to asking him for help.

I was ashamed to admit that there was some part of me that just wanted to lie down beside him and cuddle since he still responded somewhat to light stimuli in this mode. Nothing mattered anymore, the world had turned against us. But I couldn’t. I was too conflicted. Killing a human was bad—it was something that I could not move past. Despite Markus trying to drill into everyone’s head that androids were alive and equivalent to human life, I knew that I simply did not feel as bad if an android died versus a human. I realized the hypocrisy. I knew that was wrong and I’d been forcing myself to see things differently, but I couldn’t. It had always bothered me since becoming a deviant. Perhaps it was as Markus said, free will was an illusion. We operate as if we have it, but in reality, we don’t and we are a slave to our own beliefs.


End file.
